PRIO will participate at this year's Arendalsuka with three events, and with our researchers on several debate panels.
Chandler Williams has succesfully 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.
Research Professor Halvard Buhaug has been awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC) for the project "POLIMPACT: Enabling Politically Sensitive Climate Change Impact Assessments for the 21st Century".
Associate Professor at Uppsala University and PRIO associate
Nina von Uexkull has been awarded the prestigious Oscar Prize
for her work on security implications of climate change.
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.
In an extensive book review published in the journal YOUNG, Katrine Fangen offers a nuanced assessment of Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right, by Cynthia Miller-Idriss (Princeton University Press, 2020).
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).
On 15 August, PRIO, PRAKSIS and artist Motaz Habbash will kick off
a month-long residency with ten artists whose creative practices respond to
lived experiences of conflict and oppression.
In a new PRIO Paper, Senior Researcher Wenche Iren Hauge assesses how the reintegration processes of ex-combatants affect their political participation. The paper draws on case studies from Guatemala, Nepal and Colombia.
Will the principle of humanity survive the critique of anthropocentrism and a call for post-humanism?
The PRIO Gender Equality and Diversity Action Plan 2022-2025 (GEDAP) was adopted by the PRIO Board 7 April 2022.
Yesterday, a video featuring the Global Women, Peace and Security Index went viral on TikTok, garnering over 700,000 likes so far.
The Fulbright Alumni Association Norway (FAAN) has by scholarly committee awarded Gudrun the Fulbright Article Prize for 2022.
“Energy could be a good platform for reconciliation in politically laden regions, like Cyprus and beyond, but unfortunately, it has become yet another chapter in the book of the conflict.”
Read the article here.
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 has joined Scholars at Risk (SAR), a network of over 400 higher education institutions in 39 countries working to protect threatened scholars, prevent attacks on higher education and promote academic freedom.
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.
The new open access
book Lives
in Peace Research: The Oslo Stories explains how PRIO, the world's
oldest independent peace research institute, was founded and how it survived
through crises.
PRIO invites applications for this course, which will be taught in person in Oslo in September 2022. The application deadline is 10 June.
This new FAIR case brief by Eli Stamnes and Cedric de Coning focuses on the peace negotiations resulting in the Revitalised
Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in
the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS), finalized in September 2018.
PRIO Research Professor Greg Reichberg spoke at a Vatican conference on "The Family as Relational Good".
The NORM project ('Shaping the Digital World Order: Norms and Agency along the Digital Silk Road in Southeast Asia') was officially launched with a kick-off meeting on 4 May.
As part of the European Research Council funded 'Migration Rhythms in Trajectories of Upward Social Mobility in Asia' project, PRIO invites bids to develop comics based on family history interviews to be collected in four Asian cities in 2023.
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.
PRIO researchers Greg Reichberg and Henrik Syse spoke last week at the United States Naval Academy's annual McCain Conference on military ethics.
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.
This new FAIR case brief by Isabel Bramsen argues that inclusion is in fact a controversial issue with several dilemmas in relation to peace processes.
This new FAIR case brief by Zenonas Tziarras focuses on how the Astana process became central to the peace efforts regarding the Syria conflict after 2017, but it has been heavily influenced by the interests and positions of its three sponsors or guarantor powers: Russia, Turkey, and Iran.
Hvordan opplever barn og unge å delta i aktiviteter i sine trossamfunn, og hvordan er forholdet mellom dette og det de lærer på skolen? FAITHED-prosjektet søker etter en forskningsassistent som skal bidra med datainnsamling i to katolske menigheter i Oslo-området, skoleåret 2022-2023. Kan dette være av interesse for deg?
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.
Mathias Hatleskog Tjønn has contibuted to the panel, Africa Now: Migration Governance - the Emergency Transit Mechanism in Rwanda, hosted by the Norwegian Council for Africa with his knowledge on colonial history, migration studies and the Mediterranean politics.
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?
This book examines the foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus, particularly since 2004—the year of its accession to the European Union and of the failed Annan Plan V of the United Nations which aimed to solve the decades-old Cyprus Problem. Scholarly work about the politics and foreign policy of the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) has been almost entirely analyzed through the prism of the Cyprus Problem. This is not without justification since the Cyprus Problem is indeed central to the social, political, and economic life of Cyprus. However, Cyprus is located in a highly neuralgic area of historical and geopolitical importance that is, more often than not, characterized by rapid developments, instability, and insecurity. Therefore, the RoC's politics and foreign policy go well beyond the confines of the Cyprus Problem, or so they should. Although the subject of the book is not international by definition, the book touches upon many regional and international dimensions that render it relevant for anyone who wants to better understand not just Cyprus but also the broader region and its importance for regional and international actors.
Buy the book here
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.
"I am concerned that US sanctions will affect Europe more than the United States," Tzimitras, director of the PRIO Cyprus Centre, told Anadolu Agency (AA).
Last week, the United States and Britain imposed sanctions on Russia by banning oil and gas imports, while the European Union (EU) member states, which are heavily dependent on Russian gas, are trying to find alternative sources in response to Moscow's war against Ukraine.
Full interview here.
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.
Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the second part of its Sixth Assessment Report. PRIO Research Professor Halvard Buhaug, who is a chapter lead author, presented findings at the Norwegian launch of the report.
Halvard Buhaug is a chapter lead author in the forthcoming IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. The report will be launched Monday 28 February.
Over the past decade, Israel-Cyprus relations have improved dramatically. Jump-started by a shared concern over regional in/stability during the Arab Spring, a mutual desire to profit from discovery of large off-shore gas reserves in the Mediterranean, and the souring of Israel-Turkey relations, cooperation between the neighbors has rapidly become a major geopolitical reality in the Eastern Mediterranean. While others have discussed the emergence and nature of this new alignment, the present paper focuses on how viewed by the Israeli elites view the Israel-Cyprus relationship. Using media reports, parliamentary protocols, government statements, and other open-source materials, the paper examines how Israeli elites perceive the importance, nature and future of their strong relationship with the Republic of Cyprus.
See paper here
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 proud to announce that PRIO researchers Bruno Oliveira Martins and Ilaria Carrozza are joining a new UN network as expert members.
We are looking for a Communication Assistant to join PRIO's communication team.
The new Handbook on Transnationalism, edited by Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Francis L. Collins and published by Elgar, includes a chapter by PRIO Research Professor Jørgen Carling, entitled "Understanding variation and change in migrant transnationalism".
PRIO Senior Researcher Kasia Grabska has participated in an IMISCOE Migration Podcast episode, entitled "On co-production and collaborative research with refugees". The episode can be found here.
The new Handbook on Transnationalism, edited by Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Francis L. Collins and published by Elgar, includes a chapter by PRIO Research Professor Marta Bivand Erdal, entitled "Migrant transnationalism, remittances and development".
The new Handbook of Return Migration, edited by Russell King and Katie Kuschminder and published by Elgar, includes a chapter by PRIO Research Professor Marta Bivand Erdal and former PRIO Global Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sussex Ceri Oeppen, entitled "Theorising voluntariness in return".
PRIO Research Professor Marta Bivand Erdal together with Sehr Nisar, Prithvi Raj, Neha Ramchand, Furrukh Khan and Rashid Memon, have contributed a new blog post in the MIGNEX Insight series, entitled "Hope and despair in the Indus river delta: navigating the treacherous waters of capitalism, climate change and politics".
The Poland-Belarus Border: A Conversation with Marta Bivand Erdal in the Public Anthropologist
In this conversation with Public Anthropologist's Saumya Pandey (Doctoral Researcher at Christian Michelsen's Institute) PRIO Research Professor Marta Bivand Erdal reflects on the continuing Poland-Belarus crisis. To what extent and in what ways is this a crisis? And what are the research ethics of examining this situation - including dilemmas of distance and proximity, in the face of migration management at the border.
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 new book Citizen Humanitarianism at European Borders, edited by Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert and Elisa Pascucci explores the emerging trend of citizen-led forms of aid at the borders of Europe, in a time of escalating conflict between states and NGOs engaged in migrant search and rescue operations across the Mediterranean.
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 book chapter "We Are Alive, but Have No Life": Rohingya Refugees, Deprived of the Prospects for a Future written by Senior Researcher Marte Nilsen, explores some of the everyday strategies of survival that stateless, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh make use of to navigate under the precarious conditions of being denied rights and recognition.
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 research project ViEWS - A political Violence Early-Warning System has received an ERC Proof of Concept Grant as the only project in Norway in this round of competition.
The lives and dreams of young adults in three cities are explored in the project Future Migration as Present Fact (FUMI).
Jørgen Jensehaugen has just published the book En kort introduksjon til Israel - Palestina-konflikten. [A brief introduction to the Israel - Palestine conflict]. There will be a book launch as soon as PRIO opens up for public events.
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.
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) invites applications for two full-time, two-year, Postdoc positions within the project Migration Rhythms in Trajectories of Upward Social Mobility in Asia (MigrationRhythms).
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.
This new case brief by Jørgen Jensehaugen examines the dilemma of inclusion/exclusion, which is one of many central problems
in Arab–Israeli peacemaking, by using three instances of international
mediated involvement in the conflict to highlight how mediation gatekeeping has served
to exclude Palestinians, either as a people, as a
political unit, or as a spoiler group.
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.
The new book Documenting Displacement: Questioning Methodological Boundaries in Forced Migration Research, edited by Katarzyna Grabska and Christina R. Clark-Kazak, assesses the ways in which knowledge is co-created in spaces of displacement, and how it is reproduced through narratives.
Norway is an elected member of the UN Security Council and holds the presidency for the month of January. Yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anniken Huitfeldt, gave a briefing to the Norwegian Parliament on the Norwegian membership and presidency.
Kelly Fisher and Teuta Kukleci have each been nominated for the Centre for Gender Research award "Best Master's Thesis With a Gender Perspective" for 2021.
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.