The Art and Importance of Teaching Peace Research

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Since 1969, PRIO has organized and taught a graduate-level course on peace research for the University of Oslo International Summer School. For six weeks, students from around the world learn about the most current topics in peace research, including why conflicts start, why and how conflicts endure, how peace can be built in the aftermath of conflict, and the ethics of warfare. Approximately 15 lectures are given during the course, many of them by PRIO researchers, providing a fantastic opportunity to showcase PRIO’s research to new and upcoming peace scholars and practitioners.

Summer School students 2014 with the PRIO coordinators.
Photo: Julie Lunde Lillesæter, PRIO

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State Briefing: Warrap State

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Capital: Kuajok Approximate Population: 972,928. Internally Diplaced People (IDP) sheltering in the state: 8,800 Warrap State is located in the north of South Sudan, in the Greater Bahr el-Ghazal region. Warrap borders Abyei, a contested area between Sudan and South Sudan. The majority of Warrap’s inhabitants are Dinka, but Luo, Bongo and other smaller ethnic groups also… Read more »

This Week in South Sudan – Week 32

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Monday 4 August An aid worker employed by Norwegian People’s Aid was killed in Maban County. The IGAD peace talks resumed. The Tonj South (Warrap) Commissioner survived an assassination attempt. South Sudanese officials in Canada announced their support for the SPLM/A-in-Opposition. South Sudanese internally displaced people expressed doubt in the peace talks’ ability to solve the… Read more »

West pushes and eases Putin toward a “Diplomatic solution” in Ukraine

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Bad news hit the Kremlin thick and fast last week, but on Friday evening (August 1), President Vladimir Putin answered a phone call from US President Barack Obama, who again stressed that the Kremlin’s mounting problems can be resolved diplomatically (whitehouse.gov, August 1). Putin’s personal responsibility for the war in eastern Ukraine is apparently no longer up for discussion. Meanwhile, the West—after having vigorously mobilized a political effort to enforce far tougher sanctions than Moscow had budgeted for—is seemingly granting him an “honorable” way out. In Washington, and even more so in Berlin, there is understandable reluctance to heighten Putin’s desperation and to push him into a corner where further domestic mobilization against the “hostile” North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would be his only choice (Gazeta.ru, July 28). And yet, risk remains that Putin may be interpreting every offer for a compromise solution as a sign of weakness or as a trap aimed at undermining his credibility. Therefore, Obama did not hide his doubts about his irrationally thinking counterpart’s response to the West’s diplomatic message (RIA Novosti, August 1).

More in Eurasia Daily Monitor, 4 August 2014

The sanctions and the Arctic

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In the debates on the impact of tougher sanction imposed by the US and the EU last week, one of the key issues is the scope of problems that Russia will encounter in developing the “green” oil and gas fields in the Arctic.  The Economist calls it Arctic Chill, and many other media speculate that Rosneft will have to… Read more »

Filipino Migration is Extraordinary

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The population of the Philippines is surpassing 100 million in late July 2014. That’s a reminder of the country’s importance in global migration. Emigration generally has the strongest impacts in countries with relatively Scatterplot_300x300small populations, such as El Salvador, Armenia and Samoa. In fact, as the scatterplot shows, only five countries have remittance inflows representing at least 10 % of GDP and a population of at least 10 million people. Among them only Bangladesh and — as of July 2014 — the Philippines have populations of 100 million or more.

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This Week in South Sudan – Week 31

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Monday 28 July The South Sudanese government rejected demands for suspension of new oil contracts. Critical food shortage was reported in Jonglei. The South Sudanese government announced that it is ready to resume peace talks with the opposition. The SPLM/A-in-Opposition launched a new membership form to organise its members. Tuesday 29 July The SPLA declared 10 politicians ‘illegal’… Read more »

Measurement of Regime Type Effects on Police Focus

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An Iranian policeman operates a speed gun. Via wikimedia.

Is there any measurable way to tell whether police become more or less focused on crime prevention and public safety in nations that are not fully democratic?

Interesting question. I guess answering it would have to start with a good theory as to why police would change their priorities and behaviors in less democratic countries. Most existing work seems to refer to the fact that democracy provides a level of transparency, public oversight, and accountability over police practice, which make police more professional and responsive to the rule of law than they might be in non-democracies. However, I’m not aware of any scholarship looking at your precise question (i.e. the effects of regime type on police focus on crime prevention and public safety).

Read more in the original post at Political Violence @ a Glance, published 23 July 2014.

Putin held Personally Responsible for the War he is Losing

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If President Vladimir Putin really thought that the destruction of Flight MH17 with 298 people on board would soon blow over, the White House statement from last Friday must have disillusioned him—assuming his subordinates actually informed him about it. The White House statement directly noted: “we have concluded that Vladimir Putin and the Russians are culpable to this tragedy.” Russian media did its best to spin these words, whereas the official sources mentioned only the West’s lack of irrefutable evidence (Newsru.com, RIA Novosti, July 26). It is possible to interpret “the Russians” in this context in the narrow sense—as the separatist rebels—but there is no doubt about the meaning of the point: “… it all goes back ultimately to Vladimir Putin” (RBC, July 26). There were at least 15 telephone conversations between Putin and Western leaders in the immediate aftermath of the air tragedy—though none since last Wednesday (July 23).

Full text in the EDM , July 28.

Putin is trying to blend in but somehow doesn’t