Month: October 2019

A New Phase in the Syria Conflict and New Security Challenges

On 9 October 2019, Turkey launched its third invasion in Syria dubbed “Operation Peace Spring”, this time in north-eastern Syria. The previous two operations, “Euphrates Shield” and “Olive Branch” took place in north-western Syria (west of river Euphrates) and established a Turkey-controlled zone between the cities of Jarablus to the East and Afrin/Efrin to the… Read more »

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 PRIO – to reflect on… Read more »

Welcome to Open Access Week at PRIO!

This week is International Open Access Week 2019. The aim of this global event is to raise awareness about open access and open science and to contribute to promoting and mainstreaming open research practices. To mark this year’s OA Week, we’ll be publishing a series of short blog posts exploring different aspects of the debates… Read more »

China’s Conflict with the NBA Shows Why Companies Can’t Force Social Change by Themselves

A tweet landed a global brand in a clash of politics and cultural demands. It was a tough week for U.S. companies doing business in China. Tiffany canceled an ad campaign because the model had a hand over her right eye, prompting critics in China to complain it looked like she was supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. Blizzard… Read more »

What “Chernobyl” Teaches Us About the Superiority of Democracy

Authoritarian structures made Chernobyl an unavoidable accident. The HBO series “Chernobyl” has garnered rave reviews all over the world. Norwegian newspapers have been almost unanimous in their praise of the series. And with good reason. This is television drama at its very best. One largely overlooked aspect of the series is what it teaches us… Read more »

How conflict leads to biased development aid

With two special reports (here and here) released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just after the summer, the awareness of the consequences of climate change and the measures needed to limit these impacts is higher than ever before. Regrettably, there is not a one-to-one relationship between responsibility and consequences, and the burden… Read more »

The Iterative Relationship Between Technology and International Security

Scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations are often subject to public discussion about their capacity to affect international security, either by their military exploitation or their uptake and re-appropriation through non-state actors and terrorists. While accompanying proliferation and militarisation concerns are not new, the challenge of governing emerging technologies is as much about their often-unknown technical… Read more »

Preventing the Work of Rescue Vessels in the Mediterranean Will Not Save More Migrants

The Norwegian-registered vessel Ocean Viking, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières, has recently been at the centre of a debate that has become dominated by one assumption: that search-and-rescue (SAR) operations are encouraging people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean