The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in the reduction of Ukraine’s grain exports by a third. As part of its attack Russia had taken or damaged Ukrainian ports, threatened merchant ships, struck Ukraine’s rail and road infrastructure and destroyed farms. The Russian invasion was followed by rapid increases in global food prices which reached record… Read more »
Author: Nic Marsh
Mass Shootings Are Mostly Committed by Men: How Might a Gender Lens Help Us Understand This?
Two recent mass shootings in the U.S. have once again drawn attention to its high rate of gun violence and mass shootings. The sheer number of guns in the U.S. and the ease by which they can be purchased are undoubtedly parts of the explanation. What those factors don’t explain is why almost all the… Read more »
Security Logics of Africa’s Divided Position on Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Half of the nation states who chose not to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly’s extraordinary session on March 2nd were member states of the African Union (AU). In the event, 25 of the AU’s 55 member states either abstained, did not vote, or voted against the resolution. This apparent… Read more »
Arms and Influence in Ukraine
The supply of weapons and other military equipment has been one of two main responses by Western States to the invasion of Ukraine (the other being economic sanctions). Compared to direct deployment of military forces, arms supplies are often seen as relatively uncomplicated and low cost means to assist a friendly or allied state. Nevertheless,… Read more »
Peer Review and Societal Impact of COVID-19 Research
In this final instalment of our blog series marking this year’s Peer Review Week, Senior Research Nicholas Marsh looks at how Reddit users are accessing research on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and finds that non-peer-reviewed publications pose a real challenge to peer-reviewed publications as a way to disseminate research to the general public. This points… Read more »
The Pitfalls of Societal Impact in a Politicized Environment: An Example from the Corona Era
The British magazine The Spectator referred to research published in Norway to back up the magazine’s claim that societal lockdowns are not an effective means to reduce the spread of COVID-19 infections. This unlikely occurrence highlights some of the difficulties in ensuring that research has a societal impact. Funders and taxpayers reasonably expect that research… Read more »
Compounding Fragmentation: New PRIO Policy Paper on Security Force Assistance to the Sahel and Horn of Africa
Since 2010 there has been an increase in both the intensity of conflict in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, and of the level of Western military intervention in the regions. Islamist insurgency has received most external attention, but the region has also been affected by inter-communal violence, organised crime, and trafficking. One of the… Read more »
How Far Should We Go to Stop Migration to Europe?
The police, the military and militia groups in Libya are keeping refugees away from Europe. Reports link this situation to funding from the EU and Italy. The money passes through intermediaries, but Europe must bear responsibility nevertheless for making the funds available. To restrict the numbers of refugees arriving from Africa, the EU and several… Read more »
How did the San Bernardino Killers Obtain the Guns used to Commit the 2 December Massacre?
The guns were bought in a shop. How did the 13 November Paris Killers get their Guns? How did the Paris Killers Acquire their Guns?
How did the 13 November Paris Killers get their Guns?
Full details of the arms used in the 13 November massacres will emerge in time. This post provides some information on illicit automatic weapons, such as the Kalashnikov, in France, and how they reach illicit markets. Overall, it appears that there is a pool of several thousand illicit military style firearms in France and relatively… Read more »