Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

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Thursday, 13 Nov 2025

European soldiers in 2025. Photo: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Preparing for the Wrong War? The need to broaden the focus beyond defence spending towards a comprehensive approach to peace and security

Europe is rearming. What are the likely consequences of this strategy?

Comment series
Ukraine War

Research-based comments and analysis on the Ukraine War

Comment

Wednesday, 12 Nov 2025

Vladimir Putin at the joint press conference with Donald Trump after their meeting on war in Ukraine in Alaska in August 2025. Photo: Getty Images

Talks on peace deal for war against Ukraine can still rebound

The failed Russian plan to organize a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in Budapest was so significant that any prospect of bringing the war against Ukraine to an end any time soon appeared to disappear.

Tuesday, 28 Oct 2025
Putin returns to brinksmanship after new U.S. sanctions

Tuesday, 21 Oct 2025
Putin–Trump call stalls Tomahawks but reactivates ceasefire discussions

Wednesday, 15 Oct 2025
Russia ignores global peace developments to focus on Putin’s war

Tuesday, 23 Sep 2025
Putin raises the stakes of rejecting peace deal

Comment series
Nobel Peace Prize

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Friday, 7 Nov 2025

Street of Caracas, October 2025. The poster titled “The Train of Sanctions”, refers to the call for sanctions against Venezuela by the three right-wing leaders in the photo, among them Maria Corina Machado. Implicitly the poster is mocking with President Trump’s accusations against Venezuela of leading the “Train of Aragua” (a criminal gang). The poster text continues: “They will never win over us. The Venezuelan People”. Photo: Jesus Vargas/Getty Images

An unpalatable Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize must not motivate or encourage aggression, contrary to the apparent effect of this year’s prize, awarded to Maria Corina Machado.

Wednesday, 15 Oct 2025
Russia ignores global peace developments to focus on Putin’s war

Monday, 13 Oct 2025
María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize captures the spirit of our age

Thursday, 9 Oct 2025
Why Trump is unlikely to win the Nobel Peace Prize

Thursday, 18 Sep 2025
Trump says he has ended six wars in six months. As a peace researcher, I’m scratching my head

Comment series
Security Dialogue

Posts by authors and editors at Security Dialogue, a journal that aims to combine cutting-edge advances in theory with new empirical findings across a range of fields relevant to the study of security.

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Tuesday, 30 Sep 2025

A visual representation of neurodeterrence and cognitive warfare, capturing the essence of advanced neuroscience merged with technology on the battlefield of cognitive conflict. Illustration: AI-generated image

Imagining War in the Neurotechnological Age

According to neuroscientist Rafael Yuste, founding member of NeuroRights Foundation, “We are entering a world, where technologies no longer simply threaten our bodies. They are directly affecting our minds”.

Wednesday, 3 Sep 2025
Translation: How Securitization of Islam travels from Right-wing to Left-wing Political Parties

Wednesday, 3 Sep 2025
Communal life systems and security in the face of invasive infrastructures

Thursday, 13 Feb 2025
Poison: The politics behind pesticides and chemical weapons

Friday, 31 Jan 2025
Migrant deaths in the name of law

Comment

Friday, 19 Sep 2025

Academic work. Photo: Pablohart/Getty Images

Cover letters – what are they good for?

Some advice on cover letters for submission to academic journals from the Desk Editor of Journal of Peace Research.

Comment archive

Explore and dig into past commentary in our comment archive

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Thursday, 18 Sep 2025

Xi Jinping, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin in Beijing, September 2025. Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images

Three parades and four perspectives on history

Three autocrats that do not make an alliance, but join forces in setting for the apparently disunited West and to US President Donald Trump a set of hard challenges.

Comment

Monday, 15 Sep 2025

Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Israeli parliament in 2022. Photo: Amir Levy/Getty Images

Israel is not a democracy

Can we continue to call Israel a democracy? The answer is no, and paradoxically enough, neither electoral defeat for Netanyahu nor a halt in the Gaza war will change this.

Comment

Wednesday, 10 Sep 2025

Putin in Vladivostok at the Eastern Economic Forum, September 2025. Photo: Getty Images

Putin’s Vladivostok Forum underwhelming and alarming

The outcomes of wars of attrition are typically decided by the capacity to mobilize material resources. The Kremlin appears to believe, however, that impressions matter more than real capabilities and the depth of public support.

Comment series
Research Politics

Comment

Wednesday, 10 Sep 2025

Researchers discussing. Photo: Hinterhaus via Getty Images

Security policy for globalized science

Research security is a new concept in research policy. Donald Trump introduced it in a National Security Presidential Memorandum in 2021. Other NATO countries soon followed up.

Monday, 24 Mar 2025
What Now for Humanitarian Studies?

Friday, 22 Nov 2024
Authorship and Involuntary Attribution: How and Why Should We Contest AI Manipulation?

Tuesday, 12 Mar 2024
Fake Research Is Threatening Our Democracy

Tuesday, 19 Dec 2023
Optics as Politics: Culture, Language and Learning with UiO ChatGPT

Comment

Tuesday, 2 Sep 2025

American astronaut Tom Stafford shaking hands with Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov in the tunnel connecting the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft. Photo: NASA

Carving out space for peace – in space

Fifty years ago, two spacecraft met in space as part of a unique mission: After nearly two decades of intense space rivalry, the Soviet Union and the USA joined forces. We have much to learn from that landmark event today.

Comment

Monday, 1 Sep 2025

Palestinian civilians wait in line for hours for the distribution that could only serve a small number of people, in Nuseirat Refugee Camp, central Gaza, on September 01, 2025. . Photo: Moiz Salhi/Anadolu/Getty images

The starvation of Gaza is a deliberate policy

In recent days, Israel has commenced new attacks on Gaza, with humanitarian aid playing a key role in its forced expulsion of Palestinians.

Comment

Monday, 21 Jul 2025

Memorial of 22 July 2011 at the government headquarters in Oslo. Photo: PRIO / Marit Moe-Pryce

Commemorating the terrorist attack July 22, 2011: a memorial map from below

Every year since 2011, from the middle of July, survivors, the bereaved, and the rest of Norway prepare for yet another commemoration of the July 22 terror attack.

Comment

Friday, 18 Jul 2025

AI-generated image by Prachatai via Flickr. Photo: CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Adding a new piece to the puzzle: How the UN Peace and Security Data Hub can support peace and conflict research

By offering structured, publicly accessible and regularly updated data on various aspects of UN peace support, the UN Peace and Security Data Hub opens new avenues for empirical research and policy-relevant analysis – not least for forecasting platforms like VIEWS.

Comment

Wednesday, 2 Jul 2025

Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, attending a funeral for those killed in Israeli attacks in June. Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Moscow ponders reconfigured Middle East, finding few openings

The cessation of hostilities in the Gulf on 25 June was as surprising for Moscow as Israel’s strike on Iran on 13 June. Russia’s attempts to assess the consequences of the surge of the air war have to take into account apparent analytical miscalculations.

Comment

Thursday, 26 Jun 2025

Vladimir Putin speaks during Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum SPIEF in June 2025. Photo: Getty Images

Putin’s preemptive maneuvering around NATO summit is cut off

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, investors from most parts of the world have stopped coming to Russia, so the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has turned into a show of fake innovation.

Comment

Wednesday, 25 Jun 2025

Oslo street in June 2022. Photo: PRIO / Marit Moe-Pryce

Commemorating the 25 June 2022 terror attack against Oslo Pride: a chronology

As a political event the June 25 attack is remembered both in the context of domestic terror attacks and in the context of terror attacks against queer communities globally.

Comment

Tuesday, 24 Jun 2025

Security Council members at meeting on Liberia. Photo: UN Photo / Rick Bajornas

How do women ambassadors reshape diplomacy at the UN Security Council?

On the occasion of the International Day of Women in Diplomacy, 24 June.

Comment

Monday, 23 Jun 2025

Tracer rounds and defense flares in the night sky over Tehran as Iran's air defense systems respond to incoming drones and missiles launched by Israel on June 14, 2025. Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

Preventive war is wrong: Why recent attacks on Iran fail an important moral test

Can there be just cause for purely preventive military action – action that aims to impede or destroy an adversary’s capacity to wreck future harm?

Comment

Saturday, 21 Jun 2025

På rett kurs

Norske fregatter i Stillehavet er ingen avsporing, men en framtidsrettet norsk sikkerhetspolitikk.

Comment

Friday, 20 Jun 2025

Migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea. Photo: Vincenzo Circosta/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

The asylum paradox – yes. But what now?

Stating that the asylum system in Europe is dysfunctional, is hardly a novelty. It’s even been described as contributing to what has been referred to as an “asylum paradox.”

Comment

Thursday, 19 Jun 2025

US military personell maintaining an intercontinental ballistic missile. Photo: Senior Airman Daniel Brosam

The US nuclear umbrella over Europe was a myth

Is it possible to imagine that one state would risk its own destruction in defence of another state?

Comment

Tuesday, 17 Jun 2025

Israeli forces struck the Iranian state television building in Tehran, Iran on June 16, 2025. . Photo: Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

Russia’s influence in Middle East takes hit from Israeli strikes

Israel’s decision to launch a series of missile and bomb strikes on Iran on June 13 was a shocking surprise for Moscow, where the working assumption had been centered on the presumably protracted U.S.-Iranian talks on the limitations of the nuclear program.

Comment

Tuesday, 10 Jun 2025

International Court of Justice, the Hague, in April 2024. Photo: Getty Images

Lawyers and the resilience of the liberal international order

In times of political crisis and attacks against the foundations of political liberalism, can we put our trust in lawyers and other legal occupations to fight for our freedoms, when they are under attack?

Comment

Monday, 2 Jun 2025

Peace sign. Photo: Alvaro Medina Jurado / Getty Images

Peace research is not defense research: Time to insist on tougher questions

It requires greater engagement from us as a peace research community to show why peace itself is important — indeed, the most important — public good of our time.

Comment

Thursday, 22 May 2025

Researcher at work. Photo: Pablohart/Getty Images

Crisis and deglobalization: Contributions of research and the role of researchers

Humanitarian aid, development cooperation, migration governance and multilateralism have long been declared to be ‘in crisis’, but are currently experiencing unprecedented systemic shocks.

Comment

Thursday, 22 May 2025

Peace symbol on a wall with bullet holes. Photo: Getty Images

National Security and Defense Research: The Imperative of Academic Freedom and Open Debate

What kind of peace and security is to be established, nourished and preserved through the collaborative efforts to support and develop the Norwegian military?

Comment

Thursday, 15 May 2025

Palestinians deprived of basic necessities due to the ongoing Israeli blockade in Deir al Balah, Gaza on May 14, 2025. Photo: Hassan Jedi/Anadolu via Getty Images

Hunger, Displacement, and Occupation in Gaza

Outside Gaza, aid convoys are lined up. Food. Water. Medicine. The trucks are not allowed into Gaza because Israel is using humanitarian aid as a political tool to force Hamas into submission.

Comment

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Norwegian tanks. Photo: Trygve Hongset / Forsvaret

Defense Procurement and Democratic Debate: From Depoliticization to Repoliticization

Public deliberation on defense procurement could have focused on regulations, reform, or corruption. It has not.

Comment

Tuesday, 13 May 2025

Star Wars Photoshoot. Photo: Darryl Moran / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0

Why Would Humans Do Anything Boring, Difficult or Dangerous in Star Wars? Science Fiction’s Reluctance to Embrace Its Own Technology.

This blog post contains spoilers for the first series in Andor, and other science fiction shows.

Comment

Thursday, 24 Apr 2025

Nuclear icebreaker in the Arctic. Photo: Sepp Friedhuber / Getty Images.

The Hype, Delusions and Risks of the Arctic Geopolitics

The surge of political attention to the Arctic may appear counter-intuitive to the experts overtaxed with assessing the consequences of the global trade war, perplexed by the deadlock of the Ukraine War, and frustrated by the deepening indifference to the Gaza war. No notable power shifts are indeed registered in ...

PRIO Comments

Preparing for the Wrong War? The need to broaden the focus beyond defence spending towards a comprehensive approach to peace and security

Comment series Ukraine War

Talks on peace deal for war against Ukraine can still rebound

Comment series Nobel Peace Prize

An unpalatable Peace Prize

Tags

Nuclear means come to front of Putin’s long-war strategy

Record high: One in five children in conflict zones

More money, more security? Norwegian Defense spending and the need to rethink the tempo of rearmament

Peace and sustainability – two sides of the same coin

What do the recent drone sightings in Denmark and Norway mean?

Religious and secular mediators need each other

Putin attempts to shift nuclear brinkmanship

Comment series Security Dialogue

Imagining War in the Neurotechnological Age

Cover letters – what are they good for?

Comment archive

Three parades and four perspectives on history

Israel is not a democracy

Putin’s Vladivostok Forum underwhelming and alarming

Comment series Research Politics

Security policy for globalized science

Carving out space for peace – in space

The starvation of Gaza is a deliberate policy

Commemorating the terrorist attack July 22, 2011: a memorial map from below

Adding a new piece to the puzzle: How the UN Peace and Security Data Hub can support peace and conflict research

Moscow ponders reconfigured Middle East, finding few openings

Putin’s preemptive maneuvering around NATO summit is cut off

Commemorating the 25 June 2022 terror attack against Oslo Pride: a chronology

How do women ambassadors reshape diplomacy at the UN Security Council?

Preventive war is wrong: Why recent attacks on Iran fail an important moral test

På rett kurs

The asylum paradox – yes. But what now?

The US nuclear umbrella over Europe was a myth

Russia’s influence in Middle East takes hit from Israeli strikes

Lawyers and the resilience of the liberal international order

Peace research is not defense research: Time to insist on tougher questions

Crisis and deglobalization: Contributions of research and the role of researchers

National Security and Defense Research: The Imperative of Academic Freedom and Open Debate

Hunger, Displacement, and Occupation in Gaza

Defense Procurement and Democratic Debate: From Depoliticization to Repoliticization

Why Would Humans Do Anything Boring, Difficult or Dangerous in Star Wars? Science Fiction’s Reluctance to Embrace Its Own Technology.

The Hype, Delusions and Risks of the Arctic Geopolitics

Comment series
Ukraine War

Comment series
Nobel Peace Prize

Comment series
Security Dialogue

Comment series
Research Politics