News Archive

​Do you want to contribute to enhancing the visibility and impact of peace research through communication? Are you interested in research communication and skilled in public outreach?

​On Saturday 5 November, Scott Gates gave the presidential address at the 56th annual meetings of the Peace Science Society (International) in Denver, USA. 

​More than 40 peace practitioners, researchers and representatives from international organizations came together on 2 November 2022 in Geneva to discuss how various ethics perspectives could help in the planning, implemention, and evaluation of digital peacebuilding interventions.

​Today, for the fifth time in just over three years, Israelis are holding an election.

​The PRIO project “On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation” (FAIR) organized a workshop in Cyprus in partnership with the PRIO Cyprus Centre, PRIO Middle East Centre, and the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, 19-21 October.

A select group of philosophers recently gathered to discuss the ethics of artificial intelligence.

​Since the end of August, a thousand young adults in Serekunda, The Gambia, have been interviewed about their lives and dreams.

​​University of Oslo master's students are now invited to apply for a place on the UiO-PRIO Student Programme.

Today we are wishing the new Communication Director at PRIO welcome. Michelle Delaney is joining us, coming from the position as Media Adviser in the Norwegian Refugee Council. Michelle is taking over from Agnete Schjønsby, who will continue to work with communication tasks at PRIO.

​Rojan Tordhol Ezzati defended her PhD successfully on 10 October 2022 at the University of Oslo. The title of her thesis is: Debating diversity, affirming unity: Contestations over we-hood in post-terror Norway.

Congratulations from all at PRIO!

​The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski from Belarus, the Russian human rights organization Memorial and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties. 

Lise Endegard Hemat has succesfully defended her thesis ‘Just’ Research: A Case Study of EU-funded Research with Experimental Artificial Intelligence Technology for Border Control at the University of Oslo. 

Inger Skjelsbæk will receive the Ingrid Aune memorial prize 2022 for her research on conflict-related sexual violence. Skjelsbæk is a Research Professor at PRIO and the Director of the Centre for Gender Research, University of Oslo.

29.10.22 starting at 12:20

Speakers:

Marios Panayides - Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry

Nick Spyropoulos - Founder of Alma Economics

Maria Liapi - Economist

Christina Olympiou - Economist

Constantinos Taliotis - author and scientist/modeler at the Cyprus Institute

Petter Nore - Director and Head of Department at Norwegian Agency for Development and Cooperation

Discussant:

Cleopatra Kitti - Founder of the Mediterranean Growth Initiative.

The panel will discuss two recently released studies: One funded by the Norway-Cyprus bilateral funds "Cyprus' Green Pivot in a regional market based interconnected market"; and the Cyprus Institute's study in collaboration with other international scientific and academic institutions for COP27 "Large Economic benefits from Regional Energy Cooperation in the EMME region as identified by CyI's Energy Modellers".

For more see https://cyprusforum.cy/

Ebba Tellander defended her PhD successfully on 20 Septeber 2022 at the Erasmus Univeristy Rotterdam. The title of her thesis is: The Wind That Blows Before the Rain: Resistance against oppression in Northern Somalia in the 1980son 20 September 2022.

Congratulations from all at PRIO! 

​Report finds ‘Do no digital harm’ has emerged as an important humanitarian imperative, following contributions from PRIO project.

​Exploring inspiration, motivation and artistic creation of artists engaged with themes of war, conflict, displacement and social (in)justice.

​The PRIO Research School on Peace and Conflict hosted doctoral candidates at the PhD-level course from 29 August to 2 September 2022.

​This week, PRIO organized the 11th UN High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies at Soria Moria Hotel in Oslo.

Lillian Setran has successfully defended her thesis "A bulletproof peace nation? A critical discourse analysis on elite mythmaking - a case study of Norwegian arms export and the self-perception as a ‘peace nation’".

Congratulations, Lillian!

This week ​PRIO is organizing the 11th UN High-Level Seminar on Gender and Inclusive Mediation Strategies. The seminar is designed for envoys, senior mediators, and other key actors involved in international peacemaking.

​Kaja Sparre Bakke has successfully defended her thesis "Protests in Defence of Democracy: Exploring the Heterogeneous Mobilizing Effects of Democratic Erosion".

Congratulations, Kaja!

​PRIO is proud to announce that Ambassador Steffen Kongstad (retired) has joined PRIO as Practitioner in Residence (PiR).

​Arendalsuka concluded on Friday and PRIO Director Henrik Urdal sums up PRIO's contributions.

Jens Koning has successfully defended his thesis "Nature as Patronage? Exploring the Effects of Democratization and Support Coalition Identity on Forest Loss".

Congratulations, Jens!

Birthe Einen has succesfully defended her thesis "Does Gender Equality Matter? The Effect of Gender Equality on Protest Campaign Success".

Congratulations, Birthe!

​Chandler Williams has successfully defended his thesis "Airstrike-only Military Interventions and Their Civilian Consequences - Evidence from the Kosovo War".

Congratulations, Chandler!

​Nils Petter Gleditsch turns 80 years today. He has been an international leader in peace research and an institution builder at PRIO since 1964.

The 2021 update of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) data on organized violence is now available. It reveals that at least 119,000 people died as a result of organized violence in 2021. This is an increase of 46 percent compared to the year before and the highest figure since 2015.

​Anton Kronborg has successfully completed his master's thesis, titled On the Edge of their Seats: Incentives for Constituency Service in the National Assembly of Zambia, at the University of Copenhagen (Department of Political Science).

​Will the principle of humanity survive the critique of anthropocentrism and a call for post-humanism? 

Yesterday, a video featuring the Global Women, Peace and Security Index went viral on TikTok, garnering over 700,000 likes so far.

The PRIO Research School on Peace and Conflict, in collaboration with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, hosted doctoral candidates at the PhD-level course.

The project will examine the use of smartphone apps, mass notifications via SMS and messaging on social media platforms, in efforts to alert the public and respond to emergencies.

​On 1 June, the PRIO Centre on Gender, Peace and Security, and the University of Oslo's Centre for Gender Research (STK) hosted the launch of the EuroWARCHILD project. The launch brought together scholars and practitioners, as well as European war children, to discuss what it means to be a child born of war.

​Successful MIGNEX consortium meeting in Istanbul, with inspiring discussion as the project members continue to build new knowledge on migration, development and policy.

Før måtte de skjule at de var jøder i arabiske land. Nå flytter mange jøder fra hele verden til muslimske Dubai. Hvorfor?

Doctoral candidates from all over the world attended PRIO's PhD-level course on Gender, Peace and Conflict. 

​​PRIO invites applications for this course, which will be taught in person in Oslo in September 2022. The application deadline is 10 June.

​On 12 May, researchers and practitioners held interesting discussions on Syria at a roundtable at PRIO.

​PRIO invites applications for this course, which will be taught in person in Oslo in September 2022. The application deadline is 10 June.

​PRIO Research Professor Greg Reichberg spoke at a Vatican conference on "The Family as Relational Good".

Håvard Hegre has been awarded a European Research Council Advanced Grant of EUR 2.5 million for the project ANTICIPATE - Anticipating the impact of armed conflict on human development.

​​Kelly Fisher takes over from Mathias Hatleskog Tjønn as the coordinator of the PRIO Migration Centre. He holds an MA in Gender Studies and is a Research Assistant working on several migration-related projects. 

​A collaborative project in which PRIO participates has been awarded a large grant from the European Union's Horizon Europe programme.

Last night, PRIO Cyprus Centre Senior Research Consultant Mete Hatay received the Necati Özkan Award by the Necati Özkan Foundation for best researcher of the last three years.

​University of Oslo master's students are now invited to apply for a place on the UiO-PRIO Student Programme.

​On Thursday 31 March, Kristian Skrede Gleditch of the University of Essex and PRIO gave his Presidential Address at the 2022 annual convention of the International Studies Associations (ISA) in Nashville, USA. In his talk, Kristian focused on the policy relevance of doing prediction in scientific research to improve transparency, evaluate theoretical models, highlight plausible implications of alternative future scenarios, and identify key sources of vulnerability. This marks the end of his one-year term as President of the ISA. Kristian is the second ISA President from PRIO, the first being Nils Petter Gleditsch in 2008-09.

https://www.isanet.org/ISA/Governance/President

​

Russia’s war in Ukraine has been met with global condemnation drawing NATO and the EU closer together in coordinating collective responses.

In contrast to this coordinated front among US, French and German responses, it is worth drawing attention to the mixed regional responses among states in the Middle East for whom the war can have long-lasting destabilising effects.

​The journal History and Anthropology has dedicated a special section to Norwegian anthropologist Axel Sommerfelt and his previously unpublished paper on ethnic groups and boundaries. The section has been put together by PRIO researcher Tone Sommerfelt – Axel Sommerfelt's daughter – Marek Jakoubek and Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

​Do you want to contribute to enhancing the visibility and impact of peace research through strategic communication and leadership? Are you interested in research communication and skilled in public outreach? 

​Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and Senior Researcher at PRIO Charles Butcher has been awarded a European Research Council Consolidator Grant of EUR 2 million.

​Every year, JPR publishes special issues on topics of high relevance to the field of peace research, and we are now soliciting proposals for the 2024 special issue. We welcome issues on topics that significantly advance the research frontier of the field, with a focus on causes and consequences of violence, conflict prevention and resolution, and nonviolent action. 

Studies of lived religion among Muslims in Europe increasingly analyse how Muslims’ everyday practices are informed by religious beliefs, norms and values. This includes studies about food preparation, hijab fashion and shopping. Yet, religious influence on the economic aspects of Muslims’ everyday lives remains largely unexplored.

On Tuesday, 8 March, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi visited PRIO to participate in a panel discussion. The topic of discussion was how we best respond to global displacement. 

​The Warring with Machines Project co-organized a conference with PRIO Global Fellow Kaushik Roy of Jadavpur University in Kolkata. The conference was titled "AI and the Transformation of Warfare: Perspectives from South Asia and Beyond."

The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn worldwide attention to the difficulties inherent to managing disasters, forcing scholars across disciplines to consider the impact disasters have on interstate relations, state resilience, patterns of violence and hostility, and the vulnerabilities that condition conflict.

​The Red Lines and Grey Zones project has been officially launched with a kick-off meeting on the 1st of March. Please find an introduction to the project presented by Kristoffer Lidén above.

​Kumar Rupesinghe (1943–2022) passed away in Colombo in his native Sri Lanka on 19 February.

​The most relevant PRIO researchers to comment on aspects relevant to the Russia-Ukraine War are listed here.

PRIO invites applications for this course, which will be taught in person in Oslo in June 2022. The application deadline is 18 April.

​Three migration-related PhD courses will be offered at PRIO in the course of 2022: (1) Migration theory: perspectives on time and temporalities, (2) Survey methods in migration research: design, implementation, and analysis, and (3) Ethnographic fieldwork methodology: approaches, tools, and ethics.

​We are looking for a Communication Assistant to join PRIO's communication team. 

What is the current status of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)? What are its main challenges? What types of scenarios can we envision for UNRWA's future?

These were some of the questions discussed today when the PRIO Middle East Centre and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosted a roundtable with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

​The 2021 EU-Belarus border crisis was preceded by a rapid deterioration of the already strained European Union (EU)-Belarus relations, in most part due to the Ryanair 4978 incident and the concomitant wide-ranging sanctions imposed by the EU on the authoritarian government of the Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has often been referred by the media as "Europe's last dictator."

​The new case brief by Wenche Iren Hauge examines the Guatemalan peace process from 1990 to 1996 as an early example of the inclusion of civil society in a negotiation process. 

The Guatemalan case is an important illustration of the challenge in having to prioritize between different norms in a peace process – and in this case, ending violence came before important implications of inclusivity on other issues on the negotiation agenda.

The lives and dreams of young adults in three cities are explored in the project Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI).

​On February 4th, the PRIO GPS Centre hosted a webinar on Norway's work on the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda in the UN Security Council. 

​Louise Olsson is the new Research Director for the Social Dynamics Department.

​PRIO Directors have made it a tradition to offer their personal shortlists for the Peace Prize.

​In the context of rapid developments in Turkey and its broader geopolitical environment over the past decade, this book examines and conceptualises Turkey’s changing foreign policy towards a more assertive and revisionist paradigm.

PRIO is looking for two new Department Managers to support the management of Norway's fastest-growing social science research institute.

​On January 20th, the members of the EuroWARCHILD project team met for the first time for a full-day workshop to kick off the project.

​This FAIR case brief focuses on Malian women's participation in the Algiers negotiations in 2014­–2015. It shows how there were stark differences in perceptions of fairness when it came to women's participation among the different actors involved, including relatively strong resistance to women's participation from the international mediation team and the conflict parties in Algiers.