Comment archive
Displaying 79 comments posted in 2026
November 2026
Syrian refugees, dwindling aid and a push for return
Millions of Syrian refugees, whether they are living in Syria’s neighbouring countries or displaced within Syria itself, find themselves in the centre of a global storm.
Russian pundits wary of implications of U.S. Midterm results for war
Russian pundits are still evaluating the possible implications of the U.S. midterm elections for U.S. policy regarding the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
Allies at odds in the aftermath of the Nobel Peace Prize
President Trump has reacted negatively to the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Navi Pillay.
A critical moment for the UN. Norway must stand up for a fair and credible selection process
As the United Nations prepares to select its next Secretary-General, Norway must work to ensure that the process is fair, transparent and credible.
Will the next UN Secretary-General be a woman?
A woman leading the UN would be symbolically important at a time of systematic and widespread global setbacks for women's rights and gender equality.
Russia’s economic decay undercuts Putin’s global ambition
Russian President Vladimir Putin held the third Russia–Africa Summit in Moscow on October 28–29.
October 2026
The blind spot in emergency preparedness
There is a persistent lack of attention to the gendered dimensions of Norwegian emergency preparedness. Particularly to what is often referred to as ‘soft preparedness’.
Ukraine talks in Oslo fail better
Russia’s worsening economic situation and Ukrainian long-range strikes have strengthened Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s negotiating position.
Russian diesel deal and energy ceasefire expose Moscow’s limits
The U.S.–Russian diesel deal and an uncoordinated Russia–Ukraine energy ceasefire have generated diplomatic commotion.
Survey evidence from King Harald V’s funeral: Norwegians who felt their grief was shared grew closer to the nation
We share findings from our survey of Norwegians, conducted before and after King Harald V’s funeral.
Putin’s early October diplomacy fails to deliver
Putin may believe that he has caught fresh wind in the sails of his rotting gunboat, but his war course still goes through a sea of deep troubles.
Nobel Peace Prize: Gaza is a genocide
There is a genocide in Gaza. This, indirectly, is the verdict of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Trump has zero chance of winning the Nobel Peace Prize
A year ago, Donald Trump seemed convinced that the Nobel Peace Prize should be his.
September 2026
The return of interstate war should change how we think about conflict
The rise in interstate conflict signals a dangerous shift that demands new thinking in prevention, peacebuilding, and global governance.
Putin’s ‘Special Electoral Operation’ could backfire
Elections in Russia over the two and a half decades of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule have never been free and fair. The scope of electoral manipulation has been steadily rising to the point that the recent system that selected members of the Russian State Duma from September 18 to 20 cannot meaningfully be described as an election.
Predicting conflict fatalities with temporal fusion transformers
Introducing a performant, yet interpretable deep learning algorithm for conflict forecasting.
Russia remains absorbed with Europe amid BRICS summit
Russian state media regularly presents the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS as embodiments of a multipolar world order replacing Western dominance.
Escalation and the size of wars
The war in Ukraine underscores the severe human impact and economic consequences of large wars, but there has been remarkably little attention to why wars differ so much in severity in the first place.
China isn’t winning the digital order – yet
In Southeast Asia, Beijing is building the digital infrastructure, but not (yet) writing the rules.
Putin’s Eastern voyage highlights Russia’s setbacks
Russian President Vladimir Putin has lately visited at least seven cities in Russia’s Siberian and Far Eastern regions.
Is Europe up to Putin’s challenge – and vice versa?
For Europe, the challenge may no longer be only to deter Russia, but also to overcome the internal divisions that Russia seeks to exploit.
Civil wars cluster around the Equator – but why?
Civil war events are overrepresented around the Equator.
August 2026
Yes, we must create jobs, but not to prevent migration
An objective of curbing migration pressure is a poor guide for development policy.
Is US patience with Israel running out?
Israel’s military campaigns in the Middle East depend on support from the United States. But how long will that support last?
Echoes of Partition: Migration, borders and shared humanity
Mid-August marks the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, but also the mass migration and violence that followed in the wake of Partition.
How to make sense of the new world disorder
With two ongoing regional wars, a crumbling humanitarian architecture and a number of smaller, often ignored, crises, it is tempting to pronounce an end to the liberal international order as we have known it since the end of the Cold War. But is this really the case? And what, if anything, might be replacing it?
Only Moscow lacks new ideas for ending war against Ukraine
The July 23 meeting in Manila between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lasted only 35 minutes and produced no new momentum, according to the Kremlin (The Moscow Times, July 23).
The Ukraine War takes new turns in the Black Sea theatre
Wars of attrition are supposed to be static and predictable, but the Ukraine War definitely departs from this pattern. Its transformation is constant, and during this summer, new surprises have come, delivered primarily by Ukraine, which puts priority on neutralization of Russian capacity to generate mass of manpower by technological innovations.
When the deadline looms: political crises, displacement and the clock
In January 2017, the streets of Banjul, the tiny capital of The Gambia, fell silent. Shops shuttered. Families packed bags. Tens of thousands of people streamed across the border into Senegal – not because war had broken out, but because a deadline was approaching.
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