PRIO Blogs
Moscow Seeks to Regain Initiative in the Game of Peace Talks
Jubilation in Moscow after the phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump on February 12 has given way to contemplations of the consequences and even to confusion caused by the barrage of statements...
Thursday, 13 Feb 2025
Call for PhD-level course International Mediation: Theory, Cases and Skills
On 23-27 June PRIO, in collaboration with the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, will host the PhD level course International Mediation: Theory, Cases and Skills. Apply by 12 March 2025.
PRIO Blogs
Trump’s Logic of Deal-Making Versus Putin’s Logic of War-Making
As the Ukraine War approaches the grim mark of three years, it appears both ripe for an armistice and impossible to bring to an end. For US President Donald Trump, this war is a senseless waste of people and resources, which should be stopped imme...
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
Migrant deaths in the name of law
Image byJim BlackfromPixabay In international political sociology, a variety of scholars following Agamben and the so-called state of exception emphasize the routes of violence against migrants in the light of their privation of rights or “suspend...
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.
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...
Popular Article
Russian counter-offensive in the international arena has lost momentum
Popular article in Panorama UIK
PRIO Blogs
Russian Counter-Offensive in the International Arena Has Lost Momentum
One of the key goals for 2024 that President Vladimir Putin had apparently set at the end of the second year of the Ukraine war was to execute a sustained foreign policy counter-offensive to reduce Russia’s international isolation to irrelevance. ...
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...
Popular Article
Humanitarian law and politics: two sides of the same coin
Popular article in Global Policy
PRIO Blogs
Escalation Management: Putin-style, Ukraine-challenged, and NATO-pursued
Russian missile strike on the sprawling industrial complex in Dnipro on November 21 produced far more strategic resonance than material damage – and has reopened hard questions about the constant mutation of the long Russia-Ukraine war and the met...
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....
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...
Monday, 18 Nov 2024
How Civil Society Can Counter Global Authoritarianism – Insights from the PRIO Annual Peace Address
PRIO hosted the 15th Annual Peace Address on 12 November, focusing on a pressing global concern: the state of democracy and the vital role of civil society in its preservation and renewal.
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...
Journal Article
Education desires and conflict impacts in refugees’ decisions to leave
Journal article in Migration Studies
Report – External Series
Illicit Firearms Trafficking – Addressing the Criminal Side of Diversion
Issue Paper
PRIO Blogs
No Shortcut to Hard Road to Peace in Ukraine
As Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its 33rd month, no drastic changes are expected on the battlefield. Ukraine has intensified its behind-the-scenes multilateral political maneuvering, as evidenced by Ukrainian President Volodym...
PRIO Blogs
The Zelensky 'Victory Plan' That Evaporated
Is the Ukrainian president weakened? Sir Michael Howard, one of the most renowned war historians of all time, often pointed out that wars were lost or won as a result of events that took place far from the front lines. The past weeks have powerful...
Thursday, 3 Oct 2024
Nobel Peace Prize 2024: PRIO Director’s Updated List Announced
The Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), Henrik Urdal, announced his updated list for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize today, with election observers topping the list.
PRIO Blogs
Putin’s Nuclear Blackmail Goes Doctrinal
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced neither surprising nor radical revisions in Russia’s nuclear doctrine on September 25 (Kremlin.ru, September 25). He committed to revising the government’s vague document back in June. In the ensuing mont...
PRIO Blogs
Can We Award a Prize for Peace in a World Full of War?
On Friday 11 October, we will find out the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The announcement will take place against the background of full-scale wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, as well as a record number of other conflicts around the...
PRIO Blogs
Spectre of Escalation Over the Ukraine War
The first striking sentence of the Communist Manifesto issued in 1848 – A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism – has long become a historical anecdote. Even the leftist fringe cherishes no illusions about the unity of the proletar...
PRIO Blogs
Moscow Takes the Measure of Western Vacillations
Since the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the US-led Western coalition has demonstrated remarkable determination in supporting Kyiv. Yet, every practical step in providing military support to defiant Ukraine has involved protracted delibera...
PRIO Blogs
Is China Truly a Neutral Development Actor?
China presents itself as a different kind of development actor compared to Western donors — more equal and with less imposition and interference in national affairs, based on the belief that economic development leads to peace. However, many doubt...
Journal Article
SMEs, Violence and Crisis: Stylized Facts from a Survey in Latin America
Journal article in World Development
PRIO Blogs
Victory for the Civilian Uprising in Bangladesh: What is Next for the ‘Second Independence’?
It was an unprecedented and historic moment that unfolded in Bangladesh on 5 August 2024 when Prime Minister Sheik Hasina hastily fled the country in a military helicopter. The protesters had demonstrated in the streets for several weeks, and that...
Journal Article
Norway’s Aid to Ukraine: Building Peace or Fueling Crime?
Journal article in Journal of Illicit Economies and Development