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.
The most relevant PRIO researchers to comment on aspects relevant to the Russia-Ukraine War are listed here.
PRIO seeks to recruit a Research Assistant in a 50% position, to work for 10 months on the DISARM project within the CVP department.
The DISARM project seeks is to identify the impact of disarmament processes on conflict recurrence and pinpoint the conditions under which disarmament can be the most effective. This is one out of five PRIO projects that today have received funding from the Research Council of Norway.
The NORM project aims at finding out how China’s Digital Silk Road shapes the digital world order and its norms, and the agency that recipient developing countries exercise in response. This is one out of five PRIO projects that today have received funding from the Research Council of Norway.
PRIO has now joined the European Network of non-proliferation and disarmament think tanks, established by the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium. The Network gathers researchers who wish to share their work with their academic colleagues, as well as with both European authorities and the key decision-makers within EU Member States.
Nicholas Marsh has successfully defended his dissertation for the degree dr.philos: "Because We Have the Maxim Gun: The Relationship Between Arms Acquisition by Non‐State Groups and Violence".
Upon invitation from the Institute for Palestine Studies (IPS), Middle East Centre researchers Júlia Palik, Bruno Oliviera Martins, and Nic Marsh participated in a closed seminar on the future strategic changes and challenges in the Middle East.
December 5-7, PRIO hosted a workshop titled ‘Security Force Assistance in Fragile States’. Involving 30 leading academics and practitioners from around the world, the workshop provided fruitful and stimulating discussions and will stimulate future research agendas.
As part of the workshop, PRIO arranged an open seminar at Litteraturhuset on Wednesday 5 December titled ‘Military Capacity Building as a “One Size Fits All” Solution to Norway and NATO’s Security Challenges in Fragile States’. The seminar was chaired by PRIO senior researcher Øystein H. Rolandsen, and the panel consisted of: Michael Miklaucic, of the US National Defense University and editor of PRISM journal; Ruth Hanau Santini professor at the Università Orientale (Naples); Emily Knowles, director of the Remote Warfare Programme at the Oxford Research Group; and PRIO research professor Kristian Berg Harpviken. Henrik Urdal opened the seminar and welcomed the audience and participants.
A new study published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, that has been co-authored by Nicholas Marsh of PRIO, is based upon information reported by 48 countries covering the years 2010-2013 and provides the most extensive available picture of trafficking in firearms, and their parts and ammunition. Previous research has tended to be case studies that provide in-depth information on one location, but not an overview of the wider picture.
Read more in this blogpost by Nic Marsh.
A new and interactive data visualization of global homicide data, the Homicide Monitor provides key insights into the nature of violence around the world.
Several PRIO researchers have written on different aspects of the recent terror in France. Please follow this link for a collection.
This week, UN experts have gathered in Geneva to discuss emerging technologies, namely the promises and perils of lethal autonomous weapons. Contributing to this debate, PRIO's Kristin Bergtora Sandvik, Nicholas Marsh and Maral Mirshahi discuss the challenges of a future prohibition of lethal autonomous weapons systems, in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and NRK Ytring. Nicholas Marsh and Kristin Bergtora Sandvik have also contributed to the debate in their recent article published by the Belgian security and defense think-tank, Security and Defense Agenda.
Following up on the NCHS seminar Killer Robots at the UN, Nicholas Marsh continues the discussion on lethal autonomous weapons and the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots in his latest policy brief, 'Defining the Scope of Autonomy'. Marsh applies a pragmatic theory of humanitarian disarmament and discusses a set of key challenges related to the question of scope – that is, what exactly would be covered by a possible international agreement on lethal autonomous robots.
The Research School on Peace and Conflict is arranging a three day PhD course on the ethics of emerging military technologies, 13-15 November 2013. The application deadline is 13 October.
On the basis of past collaboration with Google Ideas, PRIO, and the Igarapé Institute are launching a small arms and ammunition trade visualization tool.
While overall rates of gun violence are declining in most of the developed world, certain underdeveloped regions are facing a crisis of epidemic proportions. Latin America and the Caribbean together with Central and Southern Africa feature homicide rates that are between two to ten times the global average.
In a new blog post on the NISAT blog, Nic Marsh argues that the realization of the Treaty's potential depends on the force of it's ratification and implemetation among the signatory states.
Read the blog post here.
The first global survey of the trade in ammunition for small arms and light weapons has just been launched at a UN conference on small arms and light weapons. PRIO Researcher Nicholas Marsh has contributed with the ground-breaking chapter which for the first time analyses the ammunition trade.
The Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers (NISAT) project at PRIO is currently looking for a talented individual to fill the position of either Researcher or Research Assistant within the project.
The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway, in collaboration with the NISAT Coalition, is holding an expert seminar on “Integrating Development Component into the UN Program of Action Process”.
Norwegian Church Aid and the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) will launch the report: Who takes the bullet? – The impact of small arms violence.
PRIO invites you to a seminar with Cynthia Enloe.