For 40 years from 1971 to 2011, Anne Cecilie Kjelling and the Library of the Norwegian Nobel Institute were as one. Probably every single peace, conflict, security or international relations researcher based in Oslo, or visiting the Nobel Institute during that period, will have benefitted from her kind and diligent help to identify the best possible literature or published sources for the topic they wanted to explore. She was not just interested in the books and journals as such, or in keeping them in good order, but was fascinated by our research topics. This led her to become an active participant in the Peace History section of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA).

Many a PRIOite has discussed their research projects with her and benefitted greatly from her advice. From her vantage point in the open office next to the whispering quiet she maintained in the Nobel Institute's reading room, she keenly followed PRIO's exploits through the years. She was a frequent source of help and advice for Odvar Leine, PRIO's head librarian during 2007–2017, and our current head librarian, Olga Baeva, for some years worked part time under Anne Kjelling's direction at the Nobel Institute. Anne Kjelling served as book review editor for PRIO's journal Security Dialogue from 1995–2005. Until recently, we saw her coming regularly to our seminars. And after she retired from the Nobel Institute, she took up a position at the Oslo Jewish Museum, in the immediate vicinity of PRIO.

​The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS) invite submissions of abstracts for papers to be presented at the Social Media in Armed Conflict conference, to be held on 25-26 November 2020. The conference will focus on the broad theme of social media and digital information and communication technologies (ICTs) in armed conflict and peace processes, with a particular focus on Myanmar. The deadline for submitting an abstract is now 28 August, 2020 (extended, see submission details below). 

Stein Tønnesson, Research Professor at PRIO and former Director of the Institute (2001–09) became a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi) at its annual meeting last night. 

Another new member is Olav Njølstad, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and a staff member at PRIO (1985–89) as a graduate student and research assistant. 

Congratulations to both from PRIO!​

In the December 2017 issue of the journal Contemporaty Southeast Asia Jim Rolfe reviews Stein Tønnesson's monograph Explaining the East Asian Peace (NIAS Press 2017): "Overall, this is an excellent tour d'horizon of the East Asian security environment, the factors that shape it and the scholarly arguments on how to improve it," Rolfe concludes: "I recommend this book not only for scholars of the region, but also for regional policymakers involved in security decisions."

​PRIO has since 2011 collaborated with Uppsala University on a major research program on the East Asian Peace, led by PRIO Research Professor Stein Tønnesson.