The Norwegian Sociological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award 2018 goes to a researcher whose exceptional career has had a significant impact on international social research. The reasons for the jury’s decision appear below. Brief biography For this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, there is a link between the circumstances of his birth and his… Read more »
Search Results for: Open
From Wales to Catalonia and Beyond: Gene Sharp and Non-Violent Nationalism
Gene Sharp – a pioneer in the study of non-violent action – died peacefully at the age of 90 on 28 January 2018. Obituaries in many newspapers have highlighted his contributions to the study of non-violent resistance against dictatorial regimes, pointing to how his work inspired the Arab Spring and his reputation as a “dictator’s… Read more »
Towards a More Peaceful World [insert ‘!’ or ‘?’ here]
Each war is dramatic and horrible and warrants a hundred history books and a thousand songs of sorrow. But it also provides one more data point, along with relevant covariates, to the collection of Tolstoyan war-and-peace data-bases, and statisticians may study the evolution of alleged decreasing violence levels over time. One of the bigger questions… Read more »
Gene Sharp Has Died and the World Has Lost a Global Educator
Just a week after his 90th birthday, Gene Sharp passed away 28 January. The magazine New Statesman once described Gene Sharp as the “Machiavelli of Nonviolence” and Thomas Weber labelled him “the Clausewitz of Nonviolent Action.” Who was this man, and what did he contribute to our understanding of the use of nonviolent tactics in… Read more »
From Failure to Victory – 50 Years since the Tet Offensive
The Vietnam War remains the deadliest war the world has seen since 1945. The Tet offensive was a turning point. For the US, it took away the belief that victory was possible. All that was left was to find a way out. Fifty years ago, in the middle of the night on January 30, the… Read more »
Grievances, Accommodation, and the Decline of Ethnic Violence
The finding that violent conflict has declined, especially after the Cold War, has generated a great deal of interest. Much of the initial debate focused on whether the claim itself is correct, but the finding itself seems robust in the sense that that the number and severity of violent conflicts has declined in most data… Read more »
Putin’s “Victory” in Syria has Unraveled Fast
The civil war in Syria will soon enter into the seventh year, with around 400,000 people dead and over 12 million displaced. Although the so-called Islamic State has been militarily defeated in Raqqa, no one party is in control of the country—and there is hardly much hope that the tragedy will end soon. Turkish offensive… Read more »
Humanitarian Experimentation
Humanitarian actors, faced with ongoing conflict, epidemics, famine and a range of natural disasters, are increasingly being asked to do more with less. The international community’s commitment of resources has not kept pace with their expectations or the growing crises around the world. Some humanitarian organizations are trying to bridge this disparity by adopting new… 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 »
Nils Petter Gleditsch: Ted Gurr Has Passed Away
Sad news: Ted Robert Gurr died on 25 November He was a true giant of our field, who will be remembered for his contributions to the study of civil violence, crime, genocide, democracy, and ethnic conflict – and more. Ted’s main contribution to the study of civil violence, Why Men Rebel, was published as early… Read more »