Geir Lundestad, a Norwegian historian, who until 2014 served as the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, delivered the 2016 Cyril Foster Lecture, 'Twenty-five Years in the Search for Peace: Reflections on the Nobel Peace Prize', on 3rd March 2016. The Cyril Foster Lecture is the University's principal annual guest lecture in the field of International Relations. It has attracted a most distinguished group of lecturers. The Cyril Foster bequest specifies that the lectures are to deal with the ‘elimination of war and the better understanding of the nations of the world.’

Geir Lundestad was the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, from 1990 to 2014. In 2015 Geir published a frank account of his 25 Nobel years. The lecture is based on Geir's book, and in particular, discusses what the Nobel Peace Prize can realistically achieve.