Last year, I was promoted to Research Professor at PRIO, based on an external evaluation of fifteen of my research papers and other career accomplishments. This promotion means a lot to me because PRIO has always been academically influential in my career, even when I was just starting in Peace and Conflict Studies. The institute’s focus on using high-resolution spatial data to understand conflict processes at all scales has left a lasting impact on my work.

In this vein, I also successfully secured funding for a new research project. This collaboration, called Recording Explosive Munitions for the Analysis of War Crimes (REMWAR), involves a partnership with NORSAR. Their primary mission is to detect nuclear weapons tests that could violate test-ban treaties, but they can also identify conventional explosions from great distances. We’ll leverage this technology to create a comprehensive picture of the war in Ukraine throughout its entire duration. This will help us determine the military conditions under which civilians face the highest risk of intentional attacks and gather evidence of illegal weapons use by Russian forces. Finally, we hope to support post-war cleanup efforts by mapping unexploded ordnance.

Lastly, Gudrun Østby and I now share the editorship of the Journal of Peace Research. The entire JPR team is committed to publishing top-tier research, and we strive to make well-informed editorial decisions with fast turnaround times for more than 700 submissions per year.