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This open access book explains how PRIO, the world's oldest peace research institute, was founded and how it survived through crises. In this book, twenty-four of its researchers and associates, including Johan Galtung, Ingrid Eide, and Mari Holmboe Ruge, who founded the institute back in 1959, tell the stories of their roles in inventing and developing peace research. They reflect on their personal experiences with peace and conflict, tell what drove their peace engagement, and discuss the balance sought in the field between the cold dictates from academic rigor and the hot pursuit of peace, a desire for research to make a positive difference. Most of the chapters are interviews where one colleague interviews another. Some are self-reflective essays, while others are memorial essays written about a peace researcher who has passed away. Taken together, the book presents a lively picture of a thriving world-leading research environment and a wealth of conflicting or mutually reinforcing perspectives on war, violence, conflict, conflict management and resolution, negotiations and mediation, peacemaking, peace building, and the contested concept of peace.
"The Oslo Stories is an indispensable source to the history of peace research."
Dr. Olav Njølstad, Director, Nobel Institute, Oslo
List of contents
1. Inspiration from a Father: Johan Galtung Interviewed by Henrik Urdal.- 2. Uniting Nations for Peace: Ingrid Eide Interviewed by Stein Tønnesson.- 3. Organizing for Peace: Mari Holmboe Ruge Interviewed by Kristian Berg Harpviken.- 4. Pioneer and Patron of Social Science and Peace Research: A Portrait of Erik Rinde (1919-1994) by Lars Even Andersen.- 5. A Social Democratic Peace: Nils Petter Gleditsch Interviewed by Hilde Henriksen Waage.- 6 . Peace with a Human Rights Perspective: Asbjørn Eide Interviewed by Helge Øystein Pharo.- 7. The Lifelong Peace Advocate: A Portrait of Marek Thee (1918-1999) by Marta Bivand Erdal.- 8. Congo and Structural Violence: Helge Hveem Interviewed by Per Olav Reinton.- 9. The First Steps in the PRIO-Uppsala Connection: Peter Wallensteen Interviewed by Siri Aas Rustad.- 10. From Anarchy to Enlightened Absolutism? Sverre Lodgaard Interviewed by Hilde Henriksen Waage.- 11. The Peace Policy Maker: Dan Smith Interviewed by Stein Tønnesson.- 12. Truth and Logic for a More Peaceful World: Kristian Berg Harpviken in Conversation with Arne Strand.- 13. On the Road to Peace: Wenche Iren Hauge Interviewed by Åshild Kolås.- 14. PRIO's State Feminist: Helga Hernes Interviewed by Kristian Berg Harpviken.- 15.Searching the Archives for a Missing Peace: Hilde Henriksen Waage Interviewed by Henrik Syse.- 16.Fresh Grounded Peace Research: Åshild Kolås Interviewed by Wenche Iren Hauge.- 17. The Democratic Civil Peace and Beyond: Scott Gates Interviewed by Nils Petter Gleditsch.- 18. A Historian's Paths to Peace: Reflections from Stein Tønnesson.- 19. Managing Peace Researchers: Lene Kristin Borg and Grete Thingelstad in Conversation with Stein Tønnesson.- 20. Peace Is More Than the Absence of War: Inger Skjelsbæk Interviewed by Cindy Horst.- 21. A Migrant in the Common European House: Pavel Baev Interviewed by Stein Tønnesson.- 22. Non-Pacifist Philosophy in Good Faith: Henrik Syse Interviewed by Trond Bakkevig.- 23. Creating a Third Space in the Cyprus Conflict: Mete Hatay Interviewed by Cindy Horst.- 24. Johan Galtung at 90: His Enduring Legacy to Peace Research in Oslo.
About the author
Stein Tønnesson is Research Professor and former Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), associate editor for Asia in the
Journal of Peace Research, a Toda Senior Research Fellow, and member of the editorial board of
Global Asia. His areas of research are peace in East Asia, nation-building in Southeast Asia, conflict in the South China Sea, revolution and war in Vietnam, and the role of social media in Myanmar's internal armed conflicts. During 2011-17 he led the East Asian Peace program at the University of Uppsala, from which he published the monograph
Explaining the East Asian Peace (NIAS Press 2017) and the book chapters 'Peace by Development' in E. Bjarnegård & J. Kreutz, eds.
Debating the East Asian Peace (NIAS Press, 2017) and 'The East Asian Peace,' in T. Inoguchi, ed.
The SAGE Handbook on Asia Foreign Policy (SAGE, 2020).
