PRIO's Peace in a Pod

In the early hours of October 7, Palestinian militants with Hamas, the Islamic group that controls the Gaza Strip, mounted a stunning and highly coordinated invasion of Israel.

They rampaged through Israeli towns, killing people in their homes, attacking young rave-goers, and taking some 200 hostages.

The attacks by Hamas were horrific and gruesome, some of them live-streamed on social media for maximum impact.

These were soon followed by Israel declaring war on Gaza, announcing a complete siege and starting a relentless campaign of bombardments that has killed thousands of civilians, flattened entire neighbourhoods and unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe.

Western leaders were quick to respond to the attacks by Hamas with France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States issuing a joint statement, expressing their "steadfast and united support to Israel” and vowing to “support the country in its efforts to defend itself.”

But beyond the unified front, a number of Western countries are voicing concerns about giving Israel carte blanche in Gaza, while UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres calls for a ceasefire.

PRIO Senior Researcher Jørgen Jensehaugen, a specialist on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Jan Egeland, Secretary-General of the Norwegian Refugee Council who has teams on the ground in Gaza, discuss the West’s response to the conflict, and what the situation is like for the millions of Palestinians there.

PRIO's Peace in a Pod is hosted by Emmy-award winning journalist Arnaud Siad.

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In the early hours of October 7, a powerful earthquake shook Herat province in western Afghanistan. It was followed by multiple aftershocks and a second, strong earthquake on October 11.

Entire villages across western Afghanistan have been destroyed and over a thousand people lost their lives. And out of the rubble and dust has emerged a shocking statistic: according to the United Nations, women and children make up the vast majority of the dead and injured.

To understand why, a new report co-published by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute Oslo, sheds light on the plight of Afghan women.

Launched on October 24, the “Women, Peace and Security Index” measures women’s inclusion, justice and security in 177 countries, covering over 99% of the world’s population. The report provides alarming figures for Afghanistan, where women are being erased from public life, and ranks the country last on its global index.

In this episode of PRIO's Peace in a Pod, Torunn Tryggestad, PRIO’s Deputy Director and head of its Centre for Gender, Peace and Security, presents some of the Index's findings. She is joined by Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, the first woman to hold that role, and one of the rare women to have sat at the negotiating table with the Taliban in 2021. She is also the author of a memoir, “The Favored Daughter.”

PRIO's Peace in a Pod is hosted by Emmy-award winning journalist Arnaud Siad.

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The announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on the Peace Prize is an event highly anticipated each year by millions around the world.

It’s easy to see why: the names of previous Nobel Peace Prize recipients include the likes of Malala Yousafzai, President Barack Obama, Nelson Mandela, and the 14th Dalai Lama.

So who will be the winner this year? And what impact can it have on those who are receiving the Prize?

351 candidates were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023, according to the Nobel committee – the second highest number ever. And this time, all bets are on figures such as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, or Uyghur scholar Ilham Toti, also serving a prison sentence, in China.

But Henrik Urdal, Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, sees it differently. As is an annual tradition at PRIO, he has published his shortlist of who should get the Prize, with a focus on human rights defenders and activists.

Although PRIO is not part of the Nobel Committee and does not officially nominate laureates – its shortlist is independent, research-based, and widely respected.

Henrik joins host Arnaud Siad alongside David Beasley – the former Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, who accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization in 2020.

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Eighteen months since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. US officials now report that the total number of troops from both sides killed or wounded since the war began is nearing half a million. A staggering toll, most of it paid by Russian troops, which outnumber Ukrainians almost three to one.

Boosted by billions of dollars of military aid and state-of-the-art weaponry from its Western allies, Ukrainians have embarked on a counteroffensive aiming at regaining control of occupied territories in the East. But hundreds of kilometres of mined terrain and fortified defence lines by the Russians have crushed hopes of a swift and decisive breakthrough.

And yet, beyond the frontlines, an extraordinary summer in Russia has unfolded, with a mutiny that saw Wagner troops marching towards Moscow – and Putin promising fire and fury on those he called "traitors."

So what is really happening in the trenches of Ukraine? And is Vladimir Putin’s leadership increasingly under threat?

In this episode, joining host Arnaud Siad in Oslo is Pavel Baev, a Research Professor at PRIO and a frequent contributor to Eurasia Daily Monitor and The Jamestown Foundation.

Joining from Moscow is Nina Kruscheva, a historian and professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York, and great granddaughter of the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

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A year ago, in the early hours of June 25, a gunman opened fire at three locations in the centre of Oslo, including at the London Pub, a longstanding fixture of the LGBTQ+ scene in the Norwegian capital.

Espen Aleksander Evjenth was there dancing with his partner and his friends, when a bullet hit his head. Despite his severe wound, he miraculously survived.

Police later announced that they viewed the shooting as a terrorist attack, and Oslo Pride organisers cancelled the parade due to take place that same day.

Espen's story is one of courage and resilience in the face of unfathomable terror and violence. In this episode, he sits down with host Arnaud Siad to share his story.

For Norway, this was the latest in a series of attacks that have shaken a nation that traditionally sees itself as a bastion of peace and stability. From the July 22, 2011 horrific attacks in Oslo and Utøya, to more recent ones in Bærum and Kongsberg, acts of terror in Norway have led to some serious soul-searching – and a reflection on how those ultimately impact laws and society as a whole.

Kristin Bergtora Sandvik is a research professor at PRIO and a legal scholar at the University of Oslo. She is part of the LAW22JULY: RIPPLES project, a joint initiative by PRIO and the University of Oslo, that looks at the role of legal responses in rebuilding and strengthening societies after extremist attacks.

In this episode, she explains how Norwegian society is responding to terrorism.

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On Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has extended his rule into a third decade, beating his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in a bitter presidential race.

The run-off victory caps an extraordinary campaign for Erdoğan who had hoped for a swift win. However, sky-rocketing inflation, a devastating earthquake and a united opposition left him vulnerable at the ballot box.

For two decades, Erdoğan has loomed large over Turkish politics, gradually concentrating powers and cracking down on his political opponents and critics. Abroad, the election was closely followed by Turkey’s NATO allies, and in Moscow, where the Turkish president maintains close ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

So what does Erdoğan’s victory mean for Turks and for the country’s foreign policy?

In this episode of PRIO’s Peace in a Pod, host Arnaud Siad talks to PRIO Senior Researcher Pinar Tank, a specialist of Turkish domestic and foreign policy. They are joined by Ilhan Uzgel, a professor of International Relations formerly at Ankara University, who lost his academic position after being dismissed by a presidential decree in 2017.

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On April 15th, explosions and gunfire began to rock the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, with the paramilitaries and army accusing each other of attacking their respective bases.

With two heavily armed groups squaring off in one of the most populated cities on the African continent, the United Nations has now issued a stark warning that the humanitarian situation on the ground is reaching a “breaking point."

Katarzyna Grabska—or Kasia as she's known by her colleagues—is one of thousands of people who were evacuated aboard a rescue flight just a few days ago, scrambling for safety amid rapidly escalating violence. She is a Senior Researcher at PRIO, an anthropologist who researches issues of artistic practice in the context of war, gender, youth, issues of displacement and refugees, with a focus on Sudan.

On this special episode of PRIO's Peace in a Pod, we catch up with Kasia about her witnessing of the war, and her telling of how she escaped Sudan, a place she calls home.

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On April 25th, Israel marks 75 years of existence, commemorating the Declaration of Independence of 1948. But this year, amid the fireworks, military parades and flag-waving, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu will be on the lookout for disruptions and more protests.

Recent proposals by Netanyahu's government - the most far-right in the history of the country - to weaken the Supreme Court has sent hundreds of thousands of protestors to the streets. Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank continue to spread, with the open support of members of the government, including controversial figures such as Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

So, is Israel's democracy at risk? And in this context, what future is there for Palestinians and Israeli Arabs?

Hilde Henriksen Waage, professor of History at the University of Oslo, and research professor at PRIO. She has worked extensively on the role of Norway in the Oslo Accords and is a published author on the topic. Jørgen Jensehaugen is Senior Researcher at PRIO, and author of the book “Arab-Israeli Diplomacy Under Carter."

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Research is only valid and useful so long as the people doing it are honest. However, there many incentives for researchers to lie. This discussion looks at the following questions: What is academic fraud? How prevalent is it? What can be done to prevent fraud?

It features a prominent investigator of academic fraud (Nick Brown), a researcher who has studied academic publishing (Lynn Parker Nygaard) and a deputy editor of a prominent journal (Sebastian Schutte).

This bonus episode is hosted by PRIO Senior Researcher Nicholas Marsh.

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