Peace and Security Re-conceptualizations in the Agenda of PRIO, SIPRI, TAPRI and COPRI since the End of the Cold War

This proposal is about the evolution of a paradigm in the research agenda of the main Nordic Peace research institutes (The case studies we are interested in are the Peace Research Institute in Oslo [PRIO-1959], the Stockholm International Peace research Institute [SIPRI-1964], the Tampere Peace Research Institute [TAPRI-1970] and the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute [COPRI, 1985-2004]). Paraphrasing John M. Hobson’s book ‘The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics’, we argue that there is a “Nordic-centric Conception of World Politics’ i.e., peace research. A key aspect of our proposal is the evaluation of the impact of ‘Nordic-centrism’ in the evolution of the concept of security within peace research agenda. Until the end of the cold war, peace research was a paradigm, as well as a method of action, which developed in an environment favourable to its maturation since it matched to the political orientations of the Nordic states. Our hypothesis is that this evolution of the conception of security in the research agenda of the peace researchers was facilitated in the Nordic countries: the consubstantiality between the academic dimension of peace research and the action of policy-makers being particularly strong, the evolution of Nordic countries’ political and strategic options have had some impact on the discipline and conversely. The end of the cold war and the progressive integration of these countries to the European construction and NATO have challenged the paradigmatic foundations of Nordic peace research. The aim of this proposal is to study the whys and the wherefores of this development.