When Nezavisimaya gazeta published an article entitled “Arctic – the zone of confrontation”, I paid scant attention assuming that it was just an effort to remind that Ukraine was not everything. But then Putin held the meeting of the Security Council and ordered to set up a super-commission that would supervise all Arctic policies. Nikolai… Read more »
Month: April 2014
Rwanda, Remembrance and Research: Or, How Rwandan Violence Taught Me to Embrace Subnational/Disaggregated Conflict Studies and Integral Conflict Research
Fourteen years ago I began a journey to understand the political violence that took place in Rwanda during the year of 1994. Toward this end, I brought with me the skills that I had at that time: 1) an interest in media as well as government-generated data and content analysis, 2) an approach that was… Read more »
Climate Change and War
The day after the publication of the latest report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the effects of climate change, Norwegian daily newspaper Dagsavisen was able to report that Norway’s Minister for Climate and Environment now envisaged a future world with more conflicts. This is in line with claims made earlier… Read more »
Spitsbergen sovereignty
Norwegian newspaper Dagsavisen has published my argument that in the fast-moving escalation of the crisis around Ukraine, Moscow could try to exploit Norwegian sensitivity to the Spitsbergen sovereignty. I certainly do not want to give the policy-makers in the Kremlin ideas, but the pressure point is too obvious to miss. It fits perfectly into the… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 15
Sunday 6 April A Nuer community meeting in Juba claimed that 17,613 Nuers have been killed since the outbreak of violence 15 December 2013. Monday 7 April IGAD announced that the seven former detainees who have formed the group, the ‘SPLM7’ will be excluded from the peace talks. South Sudan Security Service announced that they… Read more »
This Week in South Sudan – Week 14
Monday 31 March 36 civilians killed in clashes in Duk County, Jonglei. Heads of World Food Programme and UNHCR visited South Sudan. Peace talks suspended until 30 April. Tuesday 1 April Prosecution witness Aleu Ayieny Aleu withdrew as witness in the treason court case. The African Union Commission of Inquiry of South Sudan opened its… Read more »
Issues for the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots was launched in April 2013 with the objective of achieving a ban on the development, production and deployment of lethal autonomous weapons. In May 2014, the issue will be discussed by a UN expert meeting under the auspices of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) in Geneva. At this… Read more »
Treason Case in South Sudan: Why now?
While peace negotiations between the SPLM/A and the SPLM/A-in-Opposition have entered a third round in Addis Ababa, the government of South Sudan is in the process of putting several of South Sudan’s most prominent politicians on trial. The court case is highly politicised and inextricably linked to the struggle for power in South Sudan. Shortly… Read more »
Female Empowerment in DR Congo
In January 2014 PRIO researchers Gudrun Østby and Ragnhild Nordås went on a two-week fieldtrip to Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu, DRC. The main purpose of the visit was to launch the new collaborative project, “Female Empowerment in Eastern DRC”, funded by the Research Council of Norway. This project is based on a partnership… Read more »