INTERNATIONAL PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, OSLO (PRIO)

Senior Researcher (2 positions) 

Founded in 1959, the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) was one of  the first centres of peace research in the world. Today, it is an independent multi-disciplinary  research institute with more than 70 researchers. PRIO hosts the Centre for the Study of Civil War (CSCW), Norway’s only Centre of Excellence in the social sciences. Two international peer-reviewed journals are edited at PRIO (Journal of Peace Research and Security Dialogue). 

PRIO is seeking to hire two new Senior Researchers, one in the Security Programme, and one in the Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding programme. 

PRIO’s Security Programme comprises interdisciplinary research projects focusing on the ways in which individuals, groups, states and international organizations experience and respond to a range of security challenges. While retaining traditional policy perspectives, the programme aims to develop new fields of research based on both the changing security reality and an evolving universe of theories and methodological approaches to security and insecurity. Important focal points include risk studies, biosecurity, migration, security technologies, human security, gender, political ethics, urban violence, energy security, environmental security, arms trafficking, urban violence, privatization of security forces, as well as issues related to the phenomenon of terrorism and appropriate and legitimate responses to it. PRIO’s Security Programme is seeking to address this new landscape of challenges by strengthening its staff working in the area of ‘new security studies’. 

Candidates for the Security Programme should have research experience in some or all of the following areas: 

• Political and/or social theory; 
• Non-traditional security issues; 
• Trans-disciplinary approaches to security. 

PRIO’s Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Programme (CRPB) focuses on research, policy analysis and dialogue projects. It aims to combine applied knowledge and engagement in peacebuilding, and is involved in cooperative activities with several NGOs. The programme’s research areas include mine action, DDR and reintegration, small arms proliferation, and capacities for conflict management. The programme promotes joint research projects with researchers in countries affected by conflict, and has key competence on a number of countries and regions, including Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela, Haiti, Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Cyprus. At the PRIO Cyprus Centre, researchers from both the southern and northern parts of Cyprus work on joint research projects and disseminate findings within their respective communities, contributing towards reconciliation in Cyprus. 

Candidates for the CRPB should have field experience from one or more conflict zones and research experience in some or all of the following areas: 

• Security and development aid in peacebuilding; 
• Social exclusion, equity and protracted conflict; 
• Critical approaches to the study of armed conflict. 

The full text of these announcements, including requirements for both positions and details of how to apply, is available at http://www.prio.no/vacancies. Queries should be sent to recruiting@prio.no. The deadline for applications is 30 January 2009.