PRIO Blogs
What Now for Humanitarian Studies?
Humanitarianism has long been in crisis, but since early 2025 the sector has been experiencing an unprecedented organizational, institutional, normative, and political collapse. As scholars active in the broad, inter-, and multidisciplinary field ...
PRIO Blogs
There’s a Path Forward for Turkey-Greece Cooperation — but It Requires a Dose of Realism
In the Eastern Mediterranean, tensions are largely the norm rather than the exception. Greece and Turkey, two stable states and NATO allies, enjoy largely peaceful unneighborly relations, despite occasional tension between them.
PRIO Blogs
How Should Europe Respond to the Demonstrations in Turkey?
All across Turkey, a battle is being waged over the country’s future. For more than a decade, the country’s democratic institutions have steadily deteriorated and now thousands have taken to the streets in an attempt to save the remains of its dem...
PRIO Blogs
American Democracy is in Danger, but Not Dead
Trump and his supporters are undermining American democracy, posing a real threat of democratic breakdown. The consequences would be dramatic, extending far beyond the United States. However, there is still a good chance that democracy, in the end...
PRIO Blogs
Russia Refuses to Make Meaningful Step on Road to Peace
U.S., European, and Ukrainian peace-making policies are now aligned at a possible breakthrough point, as differences in means and methods transmute into complementarities. This fast evolution starkly contrasts with the immobility of Russia’s posit...
Monday, 24 Feb 2025
Afghan Women’s Struggle for Healthcare: PRIO Highlights Key Barriers and the Role of International Support
After the Taliban’s return, Afghan women face severe restrictions but remain vital in society, especially in the healthcare sector. As the humanitarian crisis deepens, experts discuss concrete steps to support women’s rights and healthcare access.
PRIO Blogs
Contesting the AI-Cybersecurity Nexus: Lessons Learned from the United Kingdom
In an age where so-called artificial intelligence (AI) seems to revolutionise every corner of our lives, it’s no surprise that its intersection with cybersecurity has become a major focus for governments worldwide. Where cybersecurity and AI were ...
PRIO Blogs
How Colombia’s Disarmament Process Transformed Weapons Into Symbols of Peace
In 2016, the Colombian government and the guerrilla group FARC-EP ended their five decade-long war. As part of the peace agreement, FARC-EP’s weapons had to be collected, a process known as disarmament. By 2017, UN observers had received and remov...
Security Dialogue
Poison: The politics behind pesticides and chemical weapons
Compounds labelled as chemical weapons and pesticides share common active chemical ingredients, which function as nerve agents to humans and insects whether they are considered a form of warfare or a farming staple. Lice: Image from Pixabay Why ar...
Tuesday, 28 Jan 2025
PRIO Director's 2025 Nobel Peace Prize List
The Director of PRIO, Henrik Urdal, announced his list today for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, with Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms topping the list.
Journal Article
Disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration in peace agreements (1975–2021): Introducing the DDR dataset
Journal article in Journal of Peace Research
PRIO Blogs
Trump Vol. 2 Will Impact Global Development
The United States is by far the world’s largest provider of foreign aid, but it is completely unclear whether and how this will continue. Trump speaks of quickly achieving peace but at the same time he threatens neighboring countries. One thing is...
Security Dialogue
Can Videogames Shape Public Understandings of Weaponized Artificial Intelligence?
Image byLukasfromPixabay Millions of consumers play videogames like Call of Duty and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon. The battlefields these series portray increasingly feature drones, tanks, and robots that select and engage targets on their own, thanks...
Tuesday, 21 Jan 2025
Write your master's thesis at PRIO: Applications open now for the PRIO Student Programme
PRIO is committed to fostering the next generation of peace researchers. To this end, we invite Master students to take part in our vibrant research community while writing their thesis.
PRIO Blogs
The International Criminal Court at Risk of Collapse
As many are by now acutely aware, the International Criminal Court (ICC) relies on state cooperation to investigate and arrest individuals charged with international crimes. This is not new. What is new is the seriousness, complexity, and extent o...
PRIO Blogs
This Is What Norwegians Think About Emergency Alerts on Mobile Phones
The mobile phone has become an indispensable part of our daily lives. We carry it with us everywhere, and it’s a crisis when it’s lost. Now it has also taken on a new role: alerting us to emergencies. On Wednesday, January 8, emergency...
PRIO Blogs
Greenland Is Not for Sale
President Donald Trump has provoked strong reactions with his proposition to buy Greenland, not the least because the right to self-determination is a fundamental principle in international law, allowing peoples to freely determine their political...
Monday, 6 Jan 2025
Apply now: PRIO Peace Research Course at the International Summer School
The PRIO Peace Research Course at the International Summer School is now opening for students to apply for places for the 2025 programme.
Popular Article
How Colombia’s disarmament process transformed weapons into symbols of peace
Popular article in The Conversation
PRIO Blogs
An Untested Refugee Theory
From late January 2025, the Israeli ban on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) will come into effect. What does this mean for the rights of the Palestinian refugees, and who will then take responsibility for h...
PRIO Blogs
We Need to Talk About Children Born of War
Every day, children are born in war and armed conflict, in Ukraine, on the Gaza Strip, in South Sudan, in Myanmar and elsewhere. Some of these children might have parents who are enemies, that is, parents who are on opposite sides of the conflict....
Friday, 29 Nov 2024
Thomas Hylland Eriksen: Words of Gratitude
On 27 November, PRIO received the sad news that Professor of social anthropology Thomas Hylland Eriksen passed away.
Report – Other
The Madrid Conference and the Washington Process (1991–1993): A Regional Framework for Resolving the Arab-Israeli Conflict
PRIO Blogs
Putin’s ‘Three Escalations’ Affect Prospect of Peace in Ukraine
Russia’s strategy in executing its aggressive war against Ukraine, passing the 1,000-day mark last week, puts the country’s economy, society, and armed forces under enormous pressure that Moscow’s militaristic propaganda cannot quite cover. As Rus...
PRIO Blogs
Protection of Civilians in Crisis: Geneva Conventions at 75
With the devastating news from Ukraine, Gaza and Sudan among other wars, we witness a crisis of the international regime for protecting civilians in armed conflict. However, this is not a total collapse but a return to the troubling world that the...
PRIO Blogs
Making Women Combatants Visible: Steps Towards Gender-Responsive Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration
In October the Security Council met for its annual Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Open Debate under the theme of “Women Building Peace in a Changing Environment.” Despite the WPS agenda’s goals for including women in all aspects of security and ...
PRIO Blogs
Israel Has Escalated Its Shadow War Against UNRWA. What Happens Now?
On 4 November, the Israeli Foreign Ministry cancelled the agreement the country signed with UNRWA in 1967. A week earlier, the Knesset had passed legislation banning UNRWA from operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. Why is I...
PRIO Blogs
Authorship and Involuntary Attribution: How and Why Should We Contest AI Manipulation?
Technology is radically changing the work and role of scholars and the function of academic publishing. Fake and fabricated content (data, facts, arguments, claims, conclusions) undermines the foundations of knowledge in a democratic society. Faki...
Thursday, 14 Nov 2024
PhD level course on Culture, Conflict and Politics
As part of the Norhed project, Partnership for Peace: Better Higher Education for Resilient Societies, PRIO held the PhD level course Culture, Conflict and Politics: Introduction to interpretive theory and methodology, 29-31 October.
PRIO Blogs
Perplexed Vladimir Putin Reckons With Outcome of US Elections
The Kremlin had confidently expected confusion and turmoil following the US presidential election. Instead, a definite outcome and the commitment to a smooth transition of power are set to shape the US political environment for the next couple of ...