Blog post archive

Tuesday, 19 Dec 2023
Optics as Politics: Culture, Language and Learning with UiO ChatGPT

Discussing the case of the University of Oslo ChatGPT and the plight of Palestinians, this blog calls for educators and researchers in peace and conflict studies, to consider the communicative politics of generative AI in their work. Introduction The adoption and adaptation of generative AI in higher education raises important ...

Sunday, 1 Oct 2023
Ola Listhaug (1949–2023)

Ola Listhaug was an international scholar, a mentor to numerous students and younger colleagues, and an entrepreneurial university administrator. He passed away on 14 September and will be missed by many. Ola Listhaug was born in the small community of Sjøholt in Western Norway, where he also eventually retired and ...

Wednesday, 12 Jul 2023
Who Should Define the Norwegian Development Policies?

While Norway aims to support the struggle for democracy and peace in Myanmar, the Norwegian immigration authorities prevent meaningful collaborations. Everything was ready. In January, he had applied for admission to a Bachelor course at the University of Oslo’s International Summer School, and he had been accepted. The course fee ...

Monday, 24 Oct 2022
Simon Schwartzman: My Norwegian Mentor

Johan Galtung, PRIO’s founder, is 92 today. We take this opportunity to publish an  essay by one of his former students, Simon Schwartzman. In 1963, I met Johan Galtung for the first time. He was to become one of my important mentors. This is the story of how that came ...

Friday, 23 Sep 2022
The Peace Researcher Is a Deeply Worried Optimist

Henrik Urdal, Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), laughs out loud when our journalist points out all the worries that have emerged during their conversation. He does indeed believe that many left-wingers can end up supporting Norwegian EU membership. But he fears continued political polarization in the United ...

Monday, 13 Dec 2021
Can Peace be Researched? Revisiting a 55-Year-Old TV Program

I was reminded recently that a 55-year-old TV program about PRIO and peace research is currently available on the website of NRK, Norway’s public radio and TV company. You can access it here. The two-part program was broadcast on 18 and 25 October 1966. NRK does not have any information ...

Friday, 9 Jul 2021
What a Year with No Travel Taught Us about the Future of Fieldwork

For many researchers working on projects that spanned international borders, the imposition of travel restrictions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid change in ways of working. Drawing on their own experience and those of colleagues of carrying out fieldwork during the pandemic, Talitha Dubow and Marta ...

Friday, 22 Jan 2021
An Australian Viking has laid down his pen

Andrew Mack, known to his friends as Andy, died peacefully in Vancouver on 20 January, just before his 82nd birthday. Andy was best known in recent years for his work as the founder and editor of the Human Security Report, with four editions from 2005 to 2013, as well as ...

Saturday, 24 Oct 2020
Johan Galtung at 90: His Enduring Legacy to Peace Research in Oslo

The banner on the front page of PRIO’s Annual Reports and other publications proudly reads: Independent • International • Interdisciplinary These three key points for PRIO today, as well as other important features of contemporary peace research in Oslo, can be traced back to PRIO’s founder, Johan Galtung. He turns ...

Monday, 12 Oct 2020
Collection of PRIO Research on Racism, Inequality and Discrimination

Introduction For over six decades, our mission here at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) has been to produce research for a more peaceful world. We analyze the conditions, causes, and dynamics of the political and social processes that create conflict or peace, and communicate this knowledge to policymakers, stakeholders, ...

Wednesday, 10 Jun 2020
Toward a Social-Democratic Peace?

The post–World War II period has shown a clear, albeit erratic, decline of organized violence. Violence in this period peaked during the Chinese Civil War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and most recently the Syrian Civil War, but the peaks are declining over time and the long-term trend in ...

Wednesday, 10 Jun 2020
Overcoming Mistrust in Afghanistan's Peace Process

The hope of pathways to peace in Afghanistan, following the Doha Agreement on 29 February, has been crushed by mutual mistrust. Over a decade of my research on comparative peace process suggests that while all peace processes are fragile in the early phase, successful ones are characterized by political and rebel leaders with ...

Friday, 5 Jun 2020
Coronavirus and the (Wannabe) Dictators

In December of last year, the Chinese state jailed a physician in the city of Wuhan. His crime? Attempting to warn authorities against the occurrence of a potentially contagious and deadly new virus. The physician, Dr. Li Wenliang, has since died from the same disease whose spread he tried to ...

Tuesday, 26 May 2020
Non-Pacifist Philosophy in Good Faith: Henrik Syse Interviewed by Trond Bakkevig

Henrik Syse, interviewed by Trond Bakkevig My Christian faith was formed in an intellectual framework. I do not mean intellectual in the academic sense of the word. It was more that thought became part of my faith. This is what PRIO’s first philosopher, Henrik Syse, tells PRIO’s first pastor, Trond ...

Wednesday, 6 May 2020
In memoriam: Arthur H. Westing (1928–2020)

Arthur Westing joined PRIO in January 1988. Sverre Lodgaard, who had worked at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) for the past six years, returned to Oslo to take over the position as Director of PRIO. As a bonus, he was able to bring Arthur to Oslo at the ...

Friday, 17 Apr 2020
A Global Call: Will COVID-19 bring more peace to the world?

This piece is part of our blog series Beyond the COVID Curve. COVID-19 has quickly changed everything from our daily routines, to the policies of governments, to the fortunes of the global economy. How will it continue to shape society and the conditions for peace and conflict globally in the near ...

Friday, 17 Apr 2020
Ceasefires in the Time of COVID-19

This piece is part of our blog series Beyond the COVID Curve. COVID-19 has quickly changed everything from our daily routines, to the policies of governments, to the fortunes of the global economy. How will it continue to shape society and the conditions for peace and conflict globally in the near ...

Monday, 16 Mar 2020
Philosophy and Ethics in the Age of Corona Virus

It has been interesting to see how many news outlets and broadcasters ask for angles and insights these days from what we can broadly call a philosophical perspective. As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, I am one of those to be asked, and I humbly try to contribute. So, what ...

Monday, 16 Mar 2020
Academics and Homeschooling: Initial Notes During COVID-19

I never thought I would have to think seriously about homeschooling. To me as an academic, feminist and parent with kids in the public-school system in Norway, that has always seemed very fringe and also enormously demanding. In any event, here we are, universities and schools in Norway are closed, ...

Monday, 9 Mar 2020
PRIO Has the Leading Experts on Protests

How does a country’s security apparatus react to a protest movement? And what happens in the aftermath of successful protests? PRIO is conducting three major research projects about protest movements, securing its position as an international leader in this field. In 2019, the world experienced a surge of non-violent protest ...

Friday, 21 Feb 2020
Olav Bjerkholt (1942–2020)

Olav Bjerkholt, professor emeritus of economics at Oslo University, passed away on 16 February. A mathematician who converted himself to an economist, he worked in the Research Department at Statistics Norway (Statistisk sentralbyrå, SSB) for 30 years. He then moved to the University of Oslo as professor of energy and ...

Thursday, 19 Dec 2019
Lewis F Richardson – An Exceptional Scholar

Lewis Fry Richardson (1881–1953) was an extraordinary scholar. Trained as a physicist, he became world famous in two rather different fields, meteorology and peace research. Academic prizes have been named for him in both areas. He also made important contributions to psychology. My just-published edited volume reviews Richardson’s contributions to ...

Friday, 6 Dec 2019
Pioneer and Patron of Social Science and Peace Research: A Portrait of Erik Rinde (1919–1994) by Lars Even Andersen

Erik Rinde (1919–1994), a portrait written by Lars Even Andersen The Norwegian version is available here (.pdf). Erik Rinde – Timeline 1919 Born 17 March 1919 1943 Cand. jur. degree (roughly equivalent to an LL.M.) conferred by the University of Oslo 1949 Founder of the International Sociological Association; serves as secretary ...

Tuesday, 5 Nov 2019
Peace with a Human Rights Perspective: Asbjørn Eide Interviewed by Helge Øystein Pharo

Asbjørn Eide, interviewed by Helge Øystein Pharo Former PRIO Director Asbjørn Eide was only seven years old when he experienced war at first hand. In a surprise attack on the morning of 9 April 1940, the Germans began to invade Norway. As a result, Norwegian forces in the Bergen area ...

Monday, 21 Oct 2019
Opening Peace Research

This week, we’ll be marking International Open Access Week with a series of short blog posts on open access and open science at PRIO. Today, we kick off the series with a blog by Nils Petter Gleditsch. We asked Nils Petter – a long-standing cornerstone of the community here at ...

Wednesday, 28 Aug 2019
Peace Is More Than the Absence of War: Inger Skjelsbæk Interviewed by Cindy Horst

Inger Skjelsbæk, interviewed by Cindy Horst We focus a lot more on conflict than we do on what peace actually is. What is it that creates well-being? What is it that makes you feel at ease in your own skin, in your own life, in your own sociopolitical context? What ...

Friday, 23 Aug 2019
Managing Peace Researchers: Lene Kristin Borg and Grete Thingelstad in Conversation with Stein Tønnesson

Lene Kristin Borg and Grete Thingelstad in Conversation with Stein Tønnesson At a farewell lunch organized for PRIO Director Sverre Lodgaard at the end of his term in 1992, someone said that, under his leadership, PRIO had made a transition from anarchy to dictatorship. The speaker who said this expressed herself ...

Wednesday, 14 Aug 2019
The First Steps in the PRIO-Uppsala Connection: Peter Wallensteen Interviewed by Siri Aas Rustad

Peter Wallensteen, interviewed by Siri Aas Rustad PRIO was the engine of our Nordic peace research network. To ‘go to PRIO’ meant to be updated on the state of the art, to find out what was going on. The ideas generated could then be taken back home and used to ...

Tuesday, 26 Feb 2019
A Book that Looks Like an Encyclopedia

Write about a book that has been particularly important for me? A difficult task! In those formative youthful years when one is attempting to shape one’s identity, in the profession as well as in society, many books and articles exert an influence – now in one direction, then in another. ...

Tuesday, 19 Feb 2019
With Politicians Who Can’t Be Bothered to Read Peace Agreements, It’s No Wonder Brexit Negotiations Are Such a Mess

Like every peace settlement, the Good Friday Agreement is a compromise document, the result of a long and difficult bargaining process that should be properly understood. Perhaps not a “cracking read”, to use the words of former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, but the Good Friday Agreement has been a pillar ...