Asbjørn Eide was born on 11 February 1933 and passed away on 14 October 2026.
Asbjørn was a towering figure in international efforts to promote peace and human rights. Trained as a jurist, he entered the field of peace research somewhat indirectly. As he himself recounted, he had attended several seminars at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and was greatly impressed by Johan Galtung. In 1969, Galtung was appointed to the newly established Chair in Conflict and Peace Research at the University of Oslo. To his surprise, Asbjørn received a telephone call from Galtung asking whether he would succeed him as Director of PRIO. After giving it some thought, he accepted. PRIO needed a steady hand to take over from its high-profile founder, and Asbjørn was somewhat older than the other likely candidates. He assumed the leadership of PRIO in 1970 and was later followed by a succession of younger directors elected amongst the Institute’s researchers. Under this rotating leadership structure, Asbjørn returned as Director in 1980–81.
Asbjørn Eide made a major contribution to PRIO and was an important and constructive bridge-builder between researchers and policymakers during periods when political conflicts severely tested that relationship. He was a good friend and mentor to those of us who were a few years younger and who, from time to time, could be inclined to express our views somewhat more sharply.
As a researcher, Asbjørn made his mark as early as 1965, while still a research fellow at the Faculty of Law, with a book on United Nations peacekeeping operations. He later contributed to a wide range of fields, including development policy, militarism and military technology, refugee issues, and, above all, human rights. Over time, human rights became his main field of work. Together with his original mentor, Torkel Opsahl, he established the Human Rights Project, which for many years was a joint undertaking between PRIO and the University of Oslo. The initiative eventually grew beyond the scope of a project, and in 1987 they were given the opportunity to establish a dedicated Institute for Human Rights, with Asbjørn serving as its first Director.
Throughout his career, Asbjørn remained highly concerned with the relationship between peace and human rights. Among other things, he wrote about the right to peace as one of the broader, emerging human rights. He must have been delighted by this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
Asbjørn Eide was interviewed by Helge Ø. Pharo about his life in Peace Research in 2019.
Nils Petter Gleditsch On behalf of former and current friends and colleagues at PRIO
