This year Israel celebrates 75 years since it was established. That spawned the Arab-Israeli conflict and the displacement of the Palestinians, known as the Nakba. PRIO researchers have done extensive research on the formative years of Israel and the events surrounding the establishment.
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.
A CMI report co-authored by PRIO researcher Jørgen Jensehaugen takes stock of the UNRWA, its role and way forward in context of a funding crisis.
Før måtte de skjule at de var jøder i arabiske land. Nå flytter mange jøder fra hele verden til muslimske Dubai. Hvorfor?
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.
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.
On 9-10 September 2021, around 20 researchers met for a hybrid online-offline workshop to share their research on specific cases of ethical issues in peace negotiations and mediation. The workshop was part of the PRIO project 'On Fair Terms: The Ethics of Peace Negotiations and Mediation' (FAIR) and included both PRIO researchers and researchers from across the world.
Bjørn Schirmer-Nilsen has successfully defended his thesis "Successful Failure: The Intifada and the Shultz Initiative of 1988".
Congratulations Bjørn!
Political Economy of Palestine: Critical, Interdisciplinary, and Decolonial Perspectives, edited by PRIO Global Fellow Alaa Tartir, Tariq Dana, and Timothy Seidel, was recently published by Palgrave Macmillan. The book explores the political economy of Palestine through critical, interdisciplinary, and decolonial perspectives. By doing so, it offers a fresh view into Palestinian political economy. This volume is written as an in-depth introduction for anyone who seeks to understand Palestine today.
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 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.
The third 2016 issue of the PRIO Gender, Peace and Security Update is now out.
The lead story in this issue looks at approaches to integrating gender into foreign policy, with examples from Australia and Sweden. The story is based on talks by Professor Jacqui True (Monash University) and Professor Karin Aggestam (Lund University) at the recent PRIO seminar 'Gender in Foreign Policy', held on 23 September 2016.
Middle East expert Professor William B. Quandt has given two seminars in Oslo, invited by the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) and the University of Oslo. Both seminars attracted audiences of close to 200.
The first seminar focused on ‘What Has Worked?’, the second on ‘What Has Not Worked?’. Both seminars were chaired by Hilde Henriksen Waage, Associate Professor (UiO) and Senior Researcher (PRIO).
MidEast Policy Brief
Journal Article in Internasjonal Politikk
Journal Article in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism
Book Review
Book Chapter in Lives in Peace Research: the Oslo Stories
Book Chapter in Lives in Peace Research: the Oslo Stories
Monograph
FAIR Case Brief
Journal Article in Quaderni CeSPI
FAIR Case Brief
Report - External Series
Report - External Series
Conflict Trends
Journal Article in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies
Report - Other
Master Thesis
Popular Article in Progress in Political Economy
Popular Article in Middle East Eye
Popular Article in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper
Popular Article in Al-Araby Al-Jadeed Newspaper