When looking back, I find nine paths I have explored in a quest to understand war and peace: War as war, war as horror, outbreaks of war, severity of wars, war endings, peace viability, regional transitions to peace, peace practices, and peaceful “utopian moments”, such as 1948, when the UN Declaration on Human Rights was… Read more »
Category: PRIO Stories
A Social Democratic Peace: Nils Petter Gleditsch Interviewed by Hilde Henriksen Waage
Nils Petter Gleditsch, interviewed by Hilde Henriksen Waage If you read my older publications, you will find very little about democracy, but a lot about equality, justice, and peace. The idea of a liberal peace, built on ties through international trade, became a major theme in peace research at the end of the 1990s. I… Read more »
Uniting Nations for Peace: Ingrid Eide Interviewed by Stein Tønnesson
When people ask what peace is, I urge them to tell me what they associate with war. They answer death, destruction, battles, arms, hatred, uniforms, suffering, fear, anxiety, loss, misery, and much else, all of which are bad and sad. Then I suggest that peace could be the opposite: life, construction, debates, tools, friendship, a… Read more »
Inspiration from a Father: Johan Galtung Interviewed by Henrik Urdal
The Second World War had a lasting effect on me. Especially because my beloved father was imprisoned at Grini (west of Oslo). And we were informed that every time there was a British bombing, prisoners would be shot. So, every night the air raid siren went, my mother and I would run out to the… Read more »