Israel

​Ine Eriksen Søreide’s tenure as Norway’s Foreign Minister between 2017 and 2021 was reviewed by PRIO researchers Torunn L. Tryggestad, Inger Skjelsbæk and Jørgen Jensehaugen, in two academic articles in a special issue of the Norwegian journal, Internasjonal Politikk.

See paper here 

​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.

​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.

​In a MidEast Policy Brief, Research Professor Pavel Baev writes about the future of UN humanitarian aid to Syria, following the UN Security Council adoption of Resolution 2585 on 9 July 2021. Even though the resolution might appear to be a recycle of the compromise reached at the Security Council in 2020, it is different in many important aspects and will be tested again in 2022, argues Baev.

​This year, four master's students at the UiO-PRIO Student Programme have successfully defended their master's theses on topics related to the Middle East. Their theses address a wide variety of topics: effects of sectarian violence in Egypt, sexual violence during the Egyptian Revolution, France's involvement in the Lebanese Civil War, and the Reagan administration's approach to the Palestinian question.

​Recent discovery of hydrocarbon has exacerbated existing geopolitical tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. In an episode of PRIO's Peace in a Pod, PRIO Cyprus Centre Researcher Zenonas Tziarras gives an overview of the Eastern Mediterranean, laying out its key players and its recent history, and sheds light on why hydrocarbons are consequential for a region that includes several Middle Eastern countries.

​In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The reflections cover historical and political background as well as current dynamics and future prospects. 

​In a recent article entitled "Energy and Sovereignty in the new Geopolitics of the Eastern Mediterranean" published in the Oxford Energy Forum, PRIO Cyprus Centre researcher Zenonas Tziarras asks how much of the recent crises can really be attributed to hydrocarbons, given other underlying issues and a history of regional tensions. He argues that hydrocarbons can only have a positive impact on eastern Mediterranean dynamics if the regional states (first) manage to resolve their fundamental and sometime decades-old differences.

​In May, a new PRIO Middle East Centre project started. The project, entitled 'Reacting to COVID-19 Across the MENA region', aims to explore how Middle East states reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic and what these varied reactions say about the regimes in question, combining statistical analysis of regional patterns with five case studies: Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Palestine. The case studies are published in the MidEast Policy Brief series, with an accompanying PRIO Paper presenting the statistical analysis.

See ​interview ​