Putin’s elites could become proponents of peace
Generational and social divisions shape elite attitudes toward Moscow’s war, with mid-level security operatives enforcing loyalty to Russian President Vladimir Putin and younger privileged figures largely indifferent to patriotism but obedient to ...
Why we should stop talking about “fake news”
The term “fake news” has taken root in public discourse, and this does more harm than good.
Deciphering the militarizing effect of military practices of threat forecasting: the French Red Team Project and its relevance for contemporary civ...
Imagine being a part of a government-backed initiative that recruits artists and scientists to envision future threat scenarios. Isn’t that a promising way to overcome organizational biases and group-thinking? In my recent article published in Sec...
Twenty years of vernacular security research
The concept of security is a complicated, and much contested, one. Does it entail survival, freedom, the absence of fear, a predictable future? Is it a property of states, of individuals, of groups, of collective identities? And how do we go about...
Why Hezbollah endures
The most recent Israeli war of aggression against Lebanon, launched to destroy Hezbollah—and still ongoing despite a ceasefire in November 2024—is part of a routine. It represents the latest escalation in a continuous war that Israel and its Weste...
Thursday, 13 Nov 2025
Haakon Gjerløw appointed new Deputy Director of PRIO
The Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is pleased to announce that it has appointed Haakon Gjerløw as its new Deputy Director, effective 1 October.
Policy Brief
Youth bulges and political participation in sub-Saharan Africa: What will the future bring?
PRIO Policy Brief
Preparing for the Wrong War? The need to broaden the focus beyond defence spending towards a comprehensive approach to peace and security
Europe is rearming. What are the likely consequences of this strategy?
Monday, 27 Oct 2025
New report raises alarm on lack of progress globally for women’s rights and wellbeing
Progress for women’s rights and wellbeing has stalled globally, according to the 2025/26 Women, Peace and Security Index launched today in New York.
More money, more security? Norwegian Defense spending and the need to rethink the tempo of rearmament
While the Norwegian defense budget continues to grow at breakneck speed, the relationship between increased spending and national and societal security remains uncertain – and insufficiently discussed.
Record high: One in five children in conflict zones
From Gaza to Sudan to Ukraine, the headlines keep reminding us of a painful truth: children are always among the hardest hit during conflict and war.
Putin–Trump call stalls Tomahawks but reactivates ceasefire discussions
Putin’s phone call yielded a short-term advantage by prompting Trump to delay a decision on supplying Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
Russia ignores global peace developments to focus on Putin’s war
Extraordinary international attention was focused on the Nobel Peace Prize announcement on October 10. Anxiety was palpable in Moscow, where official skepticism had dominated since the award of the 2022 prize to the Memorial Society.
Putin attempts to shift nuclear brinkmanship
Russian President Vladimir Putin is shifting from overt nuclear brinkmanship to using Russia’s nuclear energy program as a “peaceful” tool of influence.
Thursday, 25 Sep 2025
MigrationRhythms Survey Documentation Published Ahead of Open Access Dataset
A new PRIO Paper offers in-depth documentation of the MigrationRhythms survey, shedding light on urban middle classes, social mobility and internal & international migration across four major Asian cities.
Friday, 12 Sep 2025
PRIO-GRID wins data innovation award
The widely used PRIO-GRID data framework has been awarded the prestigious J. David Singer Data Innovation Award.
Israel is not a democracy
Can we continue to call Israel a democracy? The answer is no, and paradoxically enough, neither electoral defeat for Netanyahu nor a halt in the Gaza war will change this.
Moscow downplays drone incursion on Poland
The incursion of at least 19 Russian drones into Polish airspace on September 9–10 produced plenty of shock but hardly any awe.
Three parades and four perspectives on history
Three autocrats that do not make an alliance, but join forces in setting for the apparently disunited West and to US President Donald Trump a set of hard challenges.
Thursday, 4 Sep 2025
PRIO Senior Researcher Julia Palik secures prestigious ERC grant to study how rituals shape the social reintegration of former combatants
PRIO is immensely proud to announce that Senior Researcher Julia Palik has been awarded the highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for the groundbreaking project titled Com2Civ: Rituals in Combatant-to-Civilian Transfor...
Friday, 5 Sep 2025
Call for abstracts: Meanings and Measures of Migration Aspirations
We invite abstracts for a workshop that will explore the forefront of research on the nature of migration aspirations and related concepts. That is, how can we conceptualize and empirically examine people’s thoughts and feelings about potentially ...
Putin seeks People’s Republic of China’s support for war-to-victory stance
The PRC is marking the 80th anniversary not only of the defeat of Japanese aggression during World War II, but also the end of the long century of perceived humiliation by various imperialist powers — one of which was, in fact, Russia.
Security policy for globalized science
Research security is a new concept in research policy. Donald Trump introduced it in a National Security Presidential Memorandum in 2021. Other NATO countries soon followed up.
Translation: How Securitization of Islam travels from Right-wing to Left-wing Political Parties
Since the war on terror began, Muslim minorities living in Western countries have been increasingly treated as potentially radical individuals in cahoots with Islamist groups, and often as an urgent threat to national security. This process of gro...
PRIO Paper
Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia: Survey documentation
PRIO Paper
The starvation of Gaza is a deliberate policy
In recent days, Israel has commenced new attacks on Gaza, with humanitarian aid playing a key role in its forced expulsion of Palestinians.
Conference Paper
From Sirens to Smartphones: Expanding Emergency Communication in Norway: A case study of the implementation of Emergency Alert on mobile in Norway
Conference paper
Adding a new piece to the puzzle: How the UN Peace and Security Data Hub can support peace and conflict research
By offering structured, publicly accessible and regularly updated data on various aspects of UN peace support, the UN Peace and Security Data Hub opens new avenues for empirical research and policy-relevant analysis – not least for forecasting pla...
Journal Article
The politics of litigating and adjudicating electoral disputes: Evidence from Zambia
Journal article in Electoral Studies
Wednesday, 25 Jun 2025
Reimagining Humanitarianism. Special issue on relational accountability in locally-led crisis response
The special issue examines the transformative potential of centering communitarian practices, including mutual assistance networks, relational support systems, and local accountability frameworks, in order to rethink humanitarian action from the g...