Podcast Episode
Thursday, 2 Dec 2021
In the 1980s, in what was then Northern Somalia, doctors, teachers, and other professionals lived out their ethics and ideals by restoring a hospital and responding to the needs of people in their community. Their actions were rewarded with arrests and imprisonment. This is the story of the Uffo group.
In today’s podcast Mohamed Aden Hassan and Ebba Tellander discuss Uffo and how this story can inspire people around the world - especially perhaps the Somali Diaspora.
Ebba also wishes to acknowledge research assistance by Nasra Dahir Moahed and Shukri Ali (whose voice we hear in this episode as well).
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 2 Dec 2021
In 2020, 1.6 billion children were living in a conflict-ridden country. Approximately 452 million children – more than one in six – were living less than 50 km from where the actual fighting took place.
For the last few years PRIO and Save the Children have collaborated on the Children in Conflict project which illuminates the number of children affected by violent conflict around the world. Updates have expanded to include children living in conflict zones where they are at risk for sexual violence.
In this episode Gudrun Østby, Ragnhild Nordås, and Roos van der Haer talk about this research collaboration.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 21 Oct 2021
For some immigrants, acquiring citizenship in a new country is the final goal in a long journey of various residence statuses and times of uncertainty. But getting citizenship is not always the end of the story. From alienation through documentation, to having citizenship taken away, there can be other twists and turns even then. For immigrants with for example refugee status similar difficulties can occur.
Marta Bivand Erdal has researched citizenship, permits, and immigration status in Norway, and today discusses some of this research and her findings.
Two of Marta's publications on this topic:
Podcast Episode
Friday, 1 Oct 2021
With just one week left before the Nobel Peace Prize is announced, we take a look at PRIO Director Henrik Urdal's shortlist of possible candidates.
Thank you to the many guests on this episode:
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 30 Sep 2021
What is the transformative potential of visual storytelling in conflict research?
In the project Societal Transformation in Conflict Contexts or (TRANSFORM), animations and comics were created in collaboration between researchers, activists, artists, writers, and many others. These pieces of art not only serve to inspire possible change, but also to illustrate and highlight stories of societal transformation around the world. That work was done in collaboration with PositiveNegatives.
Today Ben Dix, PositiveNegatives Founder, and Cindy Horst, Research Professor at PRIO, talk about their work together.
Podcast Episode
Saturday, 11 Sep 2021
Today marks 20 years since 9/11. In this episode four researchers share their reflections on what the effects of this event have been on global politics, security, and war.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 9 Sep 2021
Just over seven months ago, on February 1st, 2021, the world witnessed a shockingly audacious military coup in Myanmar, in which the democratically elected National League for Democracy was deposed. Shortly after, PRIO researchers Marte Nilsen, Trude Stapnes, and Stein Tønnesson appeared in a podcast episode devoted to the coup. Today I’m talking again to these three researchers, getting their impressions and updates after seven months.
Podcast Episode
Tuesday, 17 Aug 2021
The past week has been a shock for Afghanistan and the world watching. In a matter of days, the Taliban took over regional capitals one by one, entering Kabul on Sunday, August 15.
How could this have happened? Was it foreseeable – and preventable? Research Professor Kristian Berg Harpviken shares some initial thoughts on today’s episode.
Podcast Episode
Saturday, 14 Aug 2021
In the second of this two-parter, Jørgen Carling shares his tips for employing mixed methods in research.
Podcast Episode
Friday, 13 Aug 2021
Research methods inform how knowledge is gained. The methods a researcher uses are often at the core of how they think about the world. Increasingly, some researchers have tried mixing methods. But this approach to research, though often beneficial, can also be challenging. PRIO research professor Jørgen Carling shares what he has learned about using mixed methods, and why it works so well for him.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 5 Aug 2021
In the last few weeks a familiar subject matter has dominated headlines again: is structural racism an issue in the UK, Norway, France, and many other countries? Is this term, which is often situated in an American context, relevant to Europe and other parts of the world? PRIO Research Director Marta Bivand Erdal goes beyond the debate on whether or not structural racism is a useful term to the heart of the matter: no matter what terms we use, she argues, people are experiencing discrimination big and small in their everyday lives. And often linked quite simply to other people’s assumptions, which they base on what a person looks like. How can these incidents be resolved and reckoned with?
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 29 Jul 2021
Justice after a conflict is often part of peacebuilding, and can be an important part of addressing victims’ experiences. These post-conflict processes are called “transitional justice” and are well-studied. During-conflict justice is less understood. When governments use trials, truth commissions, exiles and other tools to address crimes, even while violence is ongoing, what does it do to both the conflict itself and the people involved? Lino Owor Ogora, Nobert Dacan, and Cyanne Loyle join the podcast to address the case of Uganda.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 22 Jul 2021
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Oslo government quarters and the massacre on Utøya by terrorist Anders Behring Breivik. On the 22nd of July 2011, 77 people died, many more were injured and traumatized, and the effects of that event are still being felt today.
This week, Kristin Sandvik and Ingeborg Hjorth talk about the memorial at Utøya, and the controversy iterations of it have generated. They also illuminate how the ripple effects of a tragedy like this make waves in such a small country as Norway.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 15 Jul 2021
Have humans evolved psychological adaptations to war? That's what Henrikas Bartusevičius will look at in his cutting-edge research project "Adapted to War", funded by the European Research Council and hosted at PRIO.
To answer this question, he’ll have to work across disciplines, conducting lab experiments and surveys. We discuss how he became interested in this topic, and what it could mean for how we understand human behavior.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 8 Jul 2021
On the 22nd of July, 2011, Norway experienced it’s deadliest attack since World War II. Ten years later, the country is still reckoning with what happened. Part of that reckoning is physical, embodied in the tearing down and rebuilding of the government quarter where the first attack took place. Much of the construction and planning has been controversial, and there is still extensive work to be done.
In this episode, Kristin Bergtora Sandvik and Sissel Haugdal Jore discuss how the rebuilding has been planned and envisioned, and what this can mean for the security of ordinary citizens – both in their everyday lives, and in how we conceptualize safety in cities.
Jore was part of the concept assessment for the future government quarters, and also conducted a research project on the consequences of security in Oslo. Sandvik leads a new project on the attack, titled "LAW22JULY: RIPPLES: Rights, Institutions, Procedures, Participation, Litigation: Embedding Security".
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 1 Jul 2021
In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around the world, many institutions looked inward at what they could do or change, PRIO included. Last year PRIO allocated internal funding to develop projects on ethnic, racial, cultural and religious discrimination. One of those projects is "Teaching African peace and conflict through European eyes (EuropAcademy)", led by Ilaria Carozza and Marie Sandnes. They set out to assess university syllabi from around Europe, before and after 2015 (when the #RhodesMustFall movement started), to see how diverse they were and are. In this episode they share their initial findings from courses on Africa, peace and conflict offered at several European universities, and talk about where they'd like to take the project.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 24 Jun 2021
What makes people support terrorism or violent extremism? Is there any way to know what factors contribute? As terrorism has increasingly become a global concern, research has focused on who becomes a terrorist, and who supports terrorism, with many valuable conclusions coming out of that research. But until now no one has looked at whether these findings hold on a global scale.
In a new report for the United Nations Development Programme, Tora Sagård investigated just that, and in this episode she discusses her thoughts on the results.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 17 Jun 2021
In late 1991, refugee camps were set up in Dadaab, Kenya. Today, the three camps located there make up the third-largest refugee complex in the world. For many, Dadaab is a long term home, and education is of course an important part of life both in the camp and once an individual leaves. But while the UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 recognizes the need for everyone to have access to education, questions still remain about how to convert that education into stable and durable futures.
Today, Hassan Aden takes us into his research from Dadaab and launches a new animation made in collaboration with Hanna Ali and the PositiveNegatives team.
Podcast Episode
Wednesday, 16 Jun 2021
For the last 19 years, PRIO and the Uppsala university Department of peace and conflict have collaborated on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program. It’s the world’s main provider of data on organized violence, and is updated each year. In this episode Siri Aas Rustad shares the latest update and talks about changes and trends we’re seeing in armed conflict.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 3 Jun 2021
Many nurses working here in Norway have migrated from other parts of the world. Why do they move, and what do they experience when they begin working life in a new context? In the project Migration for welfare (WELLMIG), researchers looked specifically at nurse migration in Norway, from three countries – Sweden, Poland and the Philippines. The differences and similarities in their experiences are illuminating. Marta Bivand Erdal and Lubomiła Korzeniewska talk on this episode about "deskilling" and what motivates nurse migrants.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 27 May 2021
Justice after a conflict is often part of peacebuilding, and can be an important part of addressing victims’ experiences. These post-conflict processes are called “transitional justice” and are well-studied. But during-conflict justice is less understood. When governments use trials, truth commissions, exiles and other tools to address crimes, even while violence is ongoing, what does it do to both the conflict itself and the people involved? Lino Owor Ogora, Nobert Dacan, and Cyanne Loyle join the podcast to address the case of Uganda.
Podcast Episode
Wednesday, 19 May 2021
The term “child soldiers” is very evocative. One might think of young children being drugged or forced into fighting, traumatized and exploited. In popular culture, films like Blood Diamond and Beasts of No Nation paint vivid images of child soldiers in Sierra Leone and Ghana. But minors in conflict can be found around the world, and their experiences are not always as clear-cut.
Wenche Iren Hauge currently leads the project Minors in Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Processes – The Gender Dimension and has just released a paper detailing the experiences of minors in Nepal and Colombia. Their experiences don't match the narratives most are familiar with. Today she discusses her findings and how the international community can adjust DDR processes based on these minors experiences.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 13 May 2021
This month marked 100 years since Ireland was split in two, creating Northern Ireland, which is now part of the United Kingdom. Tensions and fighting in Northern Ireland have ebbed and flowed, and still persist today, often in the form of paramilitary groups. These groups – from both sides – are part of society and daily life. In the past few weeks they have also been in the news internationally for the role in the latest riots spurred by Brexit issues
To explain the role of paramilitary groups and the way forward post-Brexit for northern Ireland, I’m joined today by Kristin Bakke and Kit Rickard, who have recently written an article on the topic of paramilitary groups and punishment attacks.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 6 May 2021
Five years after the European migration and refugee crisis, displacement remains a pressing issue worldwide. According to the UNHCR, the global number of forcibly displaced people passed 80 million during 2020 – the highest estimate ever recorded. Several factors have contributed to this increase, including a rise in political violence and instability, and extreme weather events. But when it comes to calculating how many might be moving due to climate change, there are challenges. Scientific literature hasn't provided a satisfactory answer. In a new article for Nature Communications, Sebastian Schutte, Jonas Vestby, Jørgen Carling and Halvard Buhaug seek to fill this gap and address factors for asylum migration to the European Union.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 22 Apr 2021
Jihadism turns up not infrequently in the mainstream media. Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, ISIS – these are all jihadi groups. The word jihad simply which means struggle, and can be interpreted both as an internal struggle within oneself or as a more general struggle in the outside world. So what else do these groups actually have in common?
On this episode you'll hear Mona Kanwal Sheikh and Dino Krause, two experts on transnational jihadist networks, explain how these groups work together and apart.
Podcast Episode
Friday, 16 Apr 2021
What do current trends in armed conflict and military technology mean for the future of urban warfare?
What are the future prospects for International Humanitarian Law in settings of urban warfare?
What does this imply for the regulation of uses of explosive weapons in populated areas?
These were the questions addressed in a recent virtual roundtable on the Protection of Civilians and the Future of Urban Warfare that was hosted by PRIO in collaboration with the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies and the Norwegian Red Cross. In this bonus episode of the podcast you can hear the conversation led by Kristoffer Lidén, Senior Researcher at PRIO, and featuring Hugo Slim, Wanda Muñoz, Radhya Al-Mutawakel, Abigail Watson, and Nicholas Marsh.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 15 Apr 2021
In the last few weeks a familiar subject matter has dominated headlines again: is structural racism an issue in the UK, Norway, France, and many other countries? Is this term, which is often situated in an American context, relevant to Europe and other parts of the world? PRIO Research Director Marta Bivand Erdal goes beyond the debate on whether or not structural racism is a useful term to the heart of the matter: no matter what terms we use, she argues, people are experiencing discrimination big and small in their everyday lives. And often linked quite simply to other people’s assumptions, which they base on what a person looks like. How can these incidents be resolved and reckoned with?
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 11 Mar 2021
When we imagine artificial intelligence (AI) in warfare, we might think of films like Blade Runner and its replicants, or Terminator’s Skynet. But in reality, some artificial intelligence usage is already occurring, and contrary to the films, we should be more concerned about the humans involved. The "Warring with Machines” project at PRIO focuses on the people who serve in combat settings with AI-enabled machines. The project aims to yield moral guidelines for AI technology use in three settings: kinetic (physical) combat operations, cyber operations, and strategic planning.
Project leader Gregory Reichberg and project member Shannon French talk about the past, present, and future of AI in this episode.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 4 Mar 2021
Conflict prediction has traditionally involved statistical models and large amounts of data to yield information about where violence will take place. There are challenges with that approach though, and PRIO researchers want to improve conflict forecasting. They're trying a new approach with Conflict Cartographer.
Find out more about Conflict Cartographer here: https://www.prio.org/Projects/Project/?x=1900
Do you have better-than-average knowledge about a country in Africa? You can help out with the project by going to https://conflictcartographer.prio.org and adding your predictions.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 25 Feb 2021
In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests around the world, many institutions looked inward at what they could do or change, PRIO included. Last year PRIO allocated internal funding to develop projects on ethnic, racial, cultural and religious discrimination. One of those projects is "Teaching African peace and conflict through European eyes (EuropAcademy)", led by Ilaria Carozza and Marie Sandnes. They set out to assess university syllabi from around Europe, before and after 2015 (when the #RhodesMustFall movement started), to see how diverse they were and are. In this episode they share their initial findings from courses on Africa, peace and conflict offered at several European universities, and talk about where they'd like to take the project.
Podcast Episode
Wednesday, 13 Jan 2021
Was it the "last, horrible and violent, dying gasp of an old, white supremacist racial order in the US", or the death of democracy? Håvard Nygård was shocked and horrified on January 6, but he says that as a researcher he still has hope. That day a mob stormed the US Capitol just as Congress was formalizing Biden's presidential victory. Sirianne Dahlum (PRIO, UiO) and Håvard Nygård (PRIO) bring their expertise to a discussion of what this attack means for the US, and how we can define and interpret it (what is a coup anyway?).
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 17 Dec 2020
Drones seem to be everywhere in the news, but what do they actually mean for civilians in everyday life? And how do the military and police use and relate to them both as tools and as threats? Most importantly, what can they tell us about a wider security context? In this episode, Bruno Oliveira Martins and Andrea Silkoset also discuss how coronavirus has affected civilians lives from a security context, a surveillance context, and a technology context.
Side note: You can expect more research on this topic from Bruno with his newly-funded project RegulAIR: The integration of drones in the Norwegian and European Airspaces.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 3 Dec 2020
Have humans evolved psychological adaptations to war? That's what Henrikas Bartusevičius will look at in his cutting-edge research project "Adapted to War", funded by the European Research Council and hosted at PRIO.
To answer this question, he’ll have to work across disciplines, conducting lab experiments and surveys. We discuss how he became interested in this topic, and what it could mean for how we understand human behavior.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 26 Nov 2020
How do individual deeds, in times of radical uncertainty and flux, inspire collective action? That's what PRIO's TRANSFORM project wants to find out.
One of the cases TRANSFORM looks at is Myanmar. During fieldwork, an artist was brought along to talk with Daw Bawk Ja Lum Nyoi, a Kachin land rights activist from Northern Myanmar. That conversation and fieldwork was turned into a short animation. In this episode, Indigo interviews both the researcher and the artist to understand their process and unique experience together.
Podcast Episode
Friday, 20 Nov 2020
On November 9, Norwegian researchers and politicians came together to celebrate UN Security Council Resolution 1325. They also discussed the way forward, especially in light of Norway’s position on the security council starting January 2021.
We're spotlighting the final session from that day: a conversation between Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide, and former Deputy Prime Minister of Sweden and Minister for Nordic Cooperation Margot Wallström. Joining them were PRIOites Torunn Tryggestad and Louise Olsson.
Podcast Episode
Friday, 13 Nov 2020
November 16–20 PRIO will co-organize Afghanistan Week alongside the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee, Chr. Michelsen Institute, and the Nansen Center for Peace and Dialogue. Ahead of those events featuring many speakers from Afghanistan and around the world, we get a short intro about what the last 20 years have meant for women in Afghanistan, how women are involved in the peace talks today, and whether it is feasible there will be a peace agreement that doesn't diminish women's rights.
FYI, the Afghanistan week will be livestreamed and can thus be attended from wherever. We'll hear from politicians, journalists, academics, and activists from Afghanistan, Norway and beyond. Check the event web pages for more information.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 24 Sep 2020
We'll be back on Monday with PRIO Director Henrik Urdal's Nobel Peace Prize shortlist.
While you wait, here is an overview of all Nobel Peace Prize related items on the PRIO website.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 3 Sep 2020
How does migration affect social class? Marta Bivand Erdal wants to find out. She's just been awarded a prestigious European Research Council grant to look families in four cities in Asia, to try to find out how migration has (or has not) changed their fortunes. Marta and Indigo talk pop culture migration narratives like Crazy Rich Asians, about language barriers in fieldwork, and how the Eurovision movie might be relevant to Marta's interests.
Marta will be hiring two post-docs for her project in 2021–22. If you want to learn more, please visit the Migration Rhytyhms project webpage.
Podcast Episode
Thursday, 20 Aug 2020
The USA-based Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests which gained new momentum this spring and summer have sparked fervent discussions and mass demonstrations around the world. In this episode, researchers Christian Davenport (PRIO, University of Michigan) and Scott Gates (PRIO, University of Oslo) talk about their perspectives on state violence related to BLM, personal experiences as Americans, and the research that can shed some light on what is happening.