Ola Tunander
Ola Tunander left PRIO in 2017. The information on this page is kept for historical reasons.
Research Professor Emeritus
Email: ola@prio.org
Work phone: +47 22 54 77 41
Mobile phone: +47 90 68 23 89
Et Norge mellom stormaktene
By Ola Tunander in Ny Tid
«Spør Vadsø»
I milliardærenes lommer
Education/Qualification:
Research Director Qualification, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) after international evaluation, 2008.
Research Professor (Peace Research), International Peace Research Institute Oslo. Appointed Research Professor in 2000.
Ph.D. (Technology and Social Change). Tema Institute, Linköping University, Sweden (with a doctoral thesis on US Naval Strategy, Weapons Technology and Geopolitics), 1989.
M.Sc. (Fil Kand. History of Economics with courses in Human Geography and History of Science and Philosophy), Gothenburg University, Sweden, 1980.
Research Interest, Working Experience and Grants:
2011-2012 Writings on methodology in studies of contemporary history and international relations, and on the use of psychological operations in creating a hegemonic discourse. Project on the 'Arab Spring', Libya and China with a book volume in Swedish.
2006-2010 Contributed with chapers on 'securitization', terrorism and 'Dual State' (Pluto Press, Ashgate). Organized roundtables and conferences with the China Institute of International Studies and the Nordic Institutes of International Affairs and Peace Research funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Contributed to conferences and book volumes for the China Association for Military Science (CAMS) on the global security system. Responsible for a PRIO project on 'Humanitarian Interventions' funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
2005-2007 Responsible for PRIO project on 'The Changing Global Security System', funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, a project on 'Terrorism Scenarios' funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and author of four reports for the European Commission for a project on 'Security and Democracy' funded by the EU 6th Framework Program.
2002-2005 Leader of PRIO's Strategic Institute Programme: 'Looking Outward – The Quest for a European Security Identity' and responsible for its sub-project on terrorism, the USA and Europe, funded by Research Council of Norway (RCN). This resulted in book chapters and articles on terrorism.
2000-2001 Special Expert to the Swedish Government Inquiry – the Ekéus Inquiry – for investigating the submarine intrusions into Swedish waters in the 1980s. The research resulted in one official report and one Swedish book volume in 2001. An English volume with Frank Cass Naval History Series (London) was published in 2004 and another Swedish volume was published in 2007 (2009).
2000- Research Professor, International Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).
1998-2001 Leader of PRIO's Strategic Institute Programme: 'European Security Organisations – Two Europes, Two Philosophies' funded by RCN and resulting in a volume 'European Security Identies' (2001).
1995-2000 Leader of the Foreign and Security Policy Department/Program, PRIO. He wrote and edited several books (Sage, London) and articles on identity politics, geopolitics and European security politics, and he organized international conferences on European geopolitical change.
1991-1994 Leader of the European study group, 'Walls', Nordic Summer University.
1989-2000 Senior Research Fellow, PRIO, with a number of projects funded by the Norwegian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defence; projects on Post-Cold War Geopolitics, Nordic Security and to establish the Barents Region (for the cooperation between the Nordic countries and Russia in the far North).
1987-1989 Research Fellow for Nordic Security Studies, PRIO. Receiving tenure at PRIO in 1988.
1985-1988 Leader of the study group 'A New Europe', Nordic Summer University, and organizer of international conferences on European change.
1983-1987 Doctoral Candidate, Department of Technology and Social Change, Institute of Tema Research, Linköping University, Sweden, and with a doctoral thesis on US Maritime Strategy and the Geopolitics of the North (published by Sage as a book volume 1989)
1980-1987 Freelance journalist (written a number of articles and three books).
He has written eight books and edited or co-edited four. He has also written 35 book chapters and a number of reports and articles in international peer-reviewed journals (Review of International Studies, Intelligence and National Security, Geopolitics, Security Dialogue, International Affairs (Moscow), Cooperation & Conflict, Journal of Peace Research, Nordic Journal of Soviet and East-European Studies). Books or book chapters have been published by Sage (London), Frank Cass (London), Ashgate (London), Pluto Press (London), Westview Press (Boulder Col.), Olive Branch Press (Northampton, Mass), Rodopi (Amsterdam), Military Science Publishng House (Beijing), Museum Tusculanum (Copenhagen), Norstedts (Stockholm), Cappelen (Oslo), Carlssons (Stockholm), Symposion (Lund, Sweden), Celanders (Lund) Lund University Press (Lund), Nordic Summer University (Ålborg, Denmark) and Swedish Defence Research Establishment (FOA, Stockholm). Several of these books (and book chapters) have been used as text books at universities or military colleges.
Board Memberships
Member of the Advisory Board of Millennium: Journal of International Studies (2000). Norwegian representative in the board of NISA (Nordic International Studies Association) (1999-2002). Member of the board of International Peace Research Institute Oslo (1998-1999). Swedish representative of the board of the Nordic Summer University (1985-1987).
Referee (for academic publishers and journals)
Publishers: Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
Journals: International Security, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, Geopolitics, Political Geography, European Journal of International Relations, Cooperation & Conflict, Journal of Peace Research, Security Dialogue, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, Internasjonal Politikk.
Member of Editorial Committees
Journal of Peace Research (1989-1998), Internasjonal Politikk (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, 1993-2001).
Referee (for projects)
Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Norwegian Military Staff School, Research Council of Norway, and European Science Foudation.
UNAM University (Mexico City), Asian Law Center, University of Melbourne (Australia), Center for Naval Analysis (Washington), Naval Postgraduate School (Monterey, USA), East-West Institute (Washington, New York), Northern Region Seminar (Anchorage, Alaska), China Institute of International Studies (Beijing), China Association for Military Science (Beijing), Nairobi Diplomatic Academy (Kenya), Ankara University (Turkey), Sciences Po (Paris, France), European University Institute (Florence, Italy), Universität Kiel (Germany), Nobel Institute (Oslo, Norway), Peace Research Institute (Oslo), Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (Oslo), Norwegian Defence College (Oslo), Norwegian Military Staff School (Oslo), Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (Oslo), University of Oslo, University of Bergen (Norway), University of Tromsø (Norway), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Helsinki), The Parliament of Finland (Helsinki), Estonian Academy of Science (Tallin), Karelian Academy of Science (Petrozavodsk, Russia), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Danish Institute of International Studies, (Copenhagen), Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, Swedish Ministry of Defence (Stockholm), Swedish Institute of International Affairs (SIIA, Stockholm), The Olof Palme International Center (Stockholm), Linköping University (Sweden), The Parliament of Sweden (Stockholm), Swedish Defence College (Stockholm), Royal Institute of Tecnology (Stockholm), Lund University (Sweden), Malmö University (Sweden), Linnaeus University (Växjö, Sweden), Umeå University (Sweden).
Ola Tunander (2016)
Popular Article in Ny Tid
Saudi-Arabia direkte involvert i 11. september?
Hvem skyter statsministre?
Var drapet på Palme et statskupp?
Var det Russland? – Ukraina er saksøkt
Murar - Essäyer om makt, identitet och territorialitet
Brevet til Jeltsin
Taushetens diktatur
Thursday, 8 Apr 2010
Submarine sound - 12 October 1982
Monday, 8 Feb 2010
Spelet under ytan - Ubåtsoperationen mot Sverige 1982
Teknisk bevisning i nationalitetsfrågan för ubåts- operationen mot Sverige 1982
Forskningsprogrammet Sverige under kalla kriget
Arbetsrapport nr 16
Reviderad upplaga
Friday, 23 Mar 2007
China's Development and Its Foreign Policy
PRIO organized a successful seminar with Ambassador Ma Zhengang, President of China Institute of International Studies. The title of his lecture was 'China's Development and Its foreign Policy'. The seminar was introduced with a keynote speach by Norwegian state secretary Raymond Johansen. The seminar was chaired by Ola Tunander, PRIO.
New PRIO SIP: Europe under threat
The new SIP will study the relation between security and insecurity in Europe in the period since the attacks of 11 September 2001, focusing on six empirical cases of non-conventional insecurity in Europe: the threat of terrorist attack, social insecurity, the threat of pandemic, insecurity related to migration, gender-related insecurity, and insecurity caused by religious conflict.
Sunday, 8 Aug 2004
New Book: The Secret War Against Sweden
PRIO researcher Ola Tunander has just published a book in the Naval Policy and History Series of the publisher Frank Cass.
Friday, 27 May 2016 13:00-19:00
Sovereignty, Subs and PSYOPs
India's Nuclear Behaviour - PRIO Seminar with Kanica Rakhra
India's Role in Global Nuclear Governance - IDSA-PRIO Conference
09 - 10 Oct 2015
The Everyday Lives of Sovereignty
Imagining Basque Sovereignty: Voices From Civil Society
Workshop on Basque Nationhood in a Globalizing World
Tuesday, 28 May 2013 10:00-12:00
The New Basque Peace Process: Towards a Resolution of the Basque Conflict?
Thursday, 08 Dec 2011 14:00-15:30
UN, NATO and the Libya Intervention: Promise or Peril for the 'Responsibility to Protect'?
Monday, 12 Jan 2009 12:00-14:00
The Dual State: The Turkish Case
Wednesday, 24 Sep 2008 13:00-15:00
Developments in Chinese Military Culture and Changes in the Mind Set of the Chinese Military