General

Title: “Predicting armed conflict using protest data” Authors: Espen Geelmuyden Rød, Håvard Hegre, and Maxine Leis Year: 2023 Publisher: Journal of Peace Research Abstract: Protest is a low-intensity form of political conflict that can precipitate intrastate armed conflict. Data on protests should therefore be informative in systems that provide early warnings of armed conflict. However,…

Interested in an R package that allows you to model and draw inferences from extreme value inflated count data? Check out evinf by VIEWS member David Randahl.

We are starting off September with many new additions to the VIEWS teams in Oslo and Uppsala, who we are happy to present below! At PRIO, Chandler Williams continues on the VIEWS team after his two years as Research Assistant. Since August, he is a Doctoral Researcher working on developing forecasting methods on armed groups’…

New episode from the Uppsala University “Researching Peace” podcast, featuring the VIEWS researcher Stefan Döring.

Title: Spatial patterns of communal violence in sub-Saharan Africa Authors: Stefan Döring and Katariina Mustasilta Year: 2023 Publisher: Journal of Peace Research Abstract: Communal violence is a major source of insecurity within and across borders, sparking significant displacement flows and disturbing livelihoods. While conflict literature has shed light onto its causes, the existing research has paid…

Title: Drought exposure decreases altruism with salient group identities as key moderator Authors: Stefan Döring and Jonathan Hall Year: 2023 Publisher: Nature Climate Change Abstract: Previous research on climate change impact regularly considers conflict outcomes, thereby disregarding cooperative behaviour such as altruism. Drought has the potential to fuel inter-ethnic cleavages, thus contributing to conflicts. Yet this…

Stefan Döring was elected on a four-year mandate as an associated researcher with the Folke Bernadotte Academy (FBA) International Research Working Groups. FBA is the Swedish government agency for peace, security and development and Stefan will be part of the Climate Security group. Elected researchers are expected to strengthen the agency’s ability to take proactive…

Between August 31 and September 3 the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting and Exhibition will be held in Los Angeles, California. Several members from the VIEWS team will present and discuss the conference theme “Rights and Responsibilities in an Age of Mis- and Disinformation.” See the full program here. Time and Location Session Presentation Authors…

Finalist for the Falling Walls ‘Science Breakthroughs of the Year’ award 2023 The Falling Walls Global Call is an international competition format with an ambition to bring together science enthusiasts from diverse backgrounds, and identifying the most recent and innovative Breakthroughs of the Year. We are happy to share that Håvard Hegre has been selected…

Between June 26-28 the 2023 Jan Tinbergen European Peace Science Conference was held at the University of Bologna. VIEWS researcher Paola Vesco presented The underreported death toll of wars: a probabilistic reassessment from a structured expert elicitation co-authored with Håvard Hegre, David Randall and Stina Högblad. David Randahl is also one of the authors of…

As a Lead Machine Learning Engineer, you will play a crucial role in the deployment of our new pipeline. Collaborating closely with our team of data scientists and researchers, you will contribute to the development and implementation of the infrastructure. Additionally, you will work with, and potentially manage, external consultants during the initial phase of…

As a Lead Machine Learning Engineer, you will play a crucial role in the deployment of our new pipeline. Collaborating closely with our team of data scientists and researchers, you will contribute to the development and implementation of the infrastructure. Additionally, you will work with, and potentially manage, external consultants during the initial phase of…

VIEWS has been awarded USD 700 000 from the Complex Risk Analytics Fund (CRAF’d) to study and forecast the impact of armed conflict and climate shocks on humanitarian needs through the new PRIO-based research project VIEWS People in Need (VIEWS-PIN). Forecasts from the project will be made publicly available for decision-makers and stakeholders through the…

The Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS) recently released the result pack from Research and Strategies to Prevent Radicalisation and Violent Extremism available in six different languages. Here you can read about the contribution from VIEWS, supported by the European Research Council.

We are looking for 1-2 Research Assistant(s) to join the team within Societies at Risk at the Department of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. The position(s) are full-time, starting 1 of June 2023, or as agreed. Read more and apply before the 18th of May.

Several members of the VIEWS core team are traveling to the International Studies Association Annual Convention in Montréal. Please join us for interesting discussions! WC49: Wednesday 1:45 PM – 3:30 PM Rebel and Opposition Politics Forecasting armed conflict escalation at rebel group level from large bodies of natural language text – Mihai Croicu  TD64: Thursday…

During the early days of March, project members and collaborators with the ANTICIPATE project gathered at PRIO in Oslo to discuss progress, challenges, and possibilities in anticipating the impact of armed conflict on human development. The workshop integrated perspectives and action points from policy and research on, for instance, the connection between conflict, food security,…

The latest member of the VIEWS team, Simon Polichinel von der Maase’s research spans the field of conflict studies, data science, and machine learning. He works on conflict forecasting with a focus on Gaussian processes and cutting-edge deep learning architectures – all in a generative and probabilistic setting. Given this expertise, the VIEWS prediction models…