Research Interests
Henrik is a Research Professor at PRIO, working on ethical questions related to armed and other societal conflicts. He has also worked on questions related to domestic terrorism, ideology, free speech, and religion. He holds a doctoral degree in philosophy.
Henrik first came to PRIO in 1997 as a Senior Researcher. He has, since then, worked part-time at PRIO, alongside several other tasks and jobs. Henrik was a Journal Editor for the Norwegian political journal Tidens Tegn (1998-2000), and a Member of the Secretariat of the Norwegian Government Commission on Human Values (1998-2001). He was a Post-Doc Scholar at the University of Oslo (2002-05) and had part-time teaching positions at the University of Oslo (2001-03) and at the Norwegian Defence University College (2009-13). He worked as Head of Corporate Governance at Norges Bank Investment Management (2005-07), where he helped start the group within the bank that works on ownership, governance, and ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global. For a full six-year term (2015-20), he was a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, serving as its Vice Chair for the last four years of that term.
Henrik has since 2009 served as Chief Co-Editor of the Journal of Military Ethics (currently with James L. Cook), and he is part-time Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Oslo New University College (formerly Bjørknes University College). His position at PRIO encompasses his work as a journal editor as well as participation in several research projects, currently on the ethics of mediation and the use of artificial intelligence in armed forces. Henrik is also a freelance public speaker.
Before he came to PRIO, Henrik was a Fulbright Fellow at Boston College, USA (1989-91), and a Norwegian Research Council Fellow at the University of Oslo (1992-97). He earned his Bachelor's (Cand.Mag.) Degree from the University of Oslo in 1989, his Master of Arts Degree from Boston College in 1991, and his Ph.D. (Dr.Art.) Degree from the University of Oslo in 1997.
Henrik has lectured and published widely on problems within moral philosophy, political philosophy, business ethics, religion, and the ethics of warfare. He is the author of Natural Law, Religion, and Rights (St. Augustine's Press, 2007), based on his doctoral dissertation, and is the editor of The Ethics of War: Classic and Contemporary Readings (with Gregory Reichberg and Endre Begby, Blackwell, 2006); of Ethics, Nationalism, and Just War (with Gregory Reichberg, Catholic University of America Press, 2007); of Religion, War, and Ethics: A Sourcebook of Textual Traditions (with Gregory Reichberg and Nicole Hartwell, Cambridge University Press, 2014), and of Norge etter 22. juli ("Norway after July 22") (Cappelen Damm, 2018). He has published many academic articles, including in journals such as Ethics and International Affairs, Security Dialogue, Journal of Peace Research, Augustinian Studies, Modern Age, Nordic Journal of Applied Ethics, Corporate Governance, and Journal of Military Ethics. He has also published several books in Norwegian on issues such as faith and reason, free speech, and applied ethics. His most recent monograph, Ord i krise (Cappelen Damm, 2020), deals with the challenges of life in crisis situations, with an emphasis on the Covid pandemic.
Background
Languages spoken:
Norwegian, English, German
Working experience:
Head of Corporate Governance, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), 2005 - 2007.
Post-doc Research Fellow, University of Oslo, 2002 - 2005.
Part-time Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Oslo, 2001-2003.
Member of the Secretariat of the Norwegian Government Commission on Human Values 1998-2001.
Chief editor of political journal 'Tidens Tegn' 1998-2000. Senior researcher at PRIO since 1997.
Programme leader for the PRIO research program 'Ethics, Norms, and Identities' 1998-2002.
Education:
Dr.Art. (equiv. to PhD), University of Oslo, 1997;
Master of Arts, Boston College, 1991;
Cand.Mag. (equiv. to B.A.), University of Oslo, 1989. Fulbright scholar 1989-1991.
Doctoral student under the Ethics Program of the Norwegian Research Council 1992-1996.
Blog Posts
Why it’s wise for Ukraine to engage with an adversary like Putin. Sven G. Holtsmark offers a rebuttal to our December Commonweal article in which we discussed possible negotiations over Ukraine by referencing an ancient Greek account of war on the island of Melos (also posted on the PRIO blog here and here). We appreciate Holtsmark’s ... Read more »
The lessons an ancient Greek war can teach Ukraine today. Ukraine is confronted with a stark choice: fight on through a bitter winter with death raining from above, or initiate negotiations with Russia under unfavorable terms. Two-and-a-half millennia ago, the leaders of the Greek island of Melos confronted a similar ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Last week, 50 years ago, Apollo 17’s lunar module left the moon. Since then, no one has set foot there. Let us pause for a moment to think about the signficance of that rather unique adventure called Apollo. The Apollo program defies belief. At a time when much of modern ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Monday, 29 June 2020
Hilde Henriksen Waage, interviewed by Henrik Syse Between Israel and the Palestinians there has always been a huge asymmetry of power. There is a strong party and a weak party, and this has made it impossible to achieve a genuine peace. A nice little bridge-builder like Norway cannot easily change ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Monday, 16 March 2020
It has been interesting to see how many news outlets and broadcasters ask for angles and insights these days from what we can broadly call a philosophical perspective. As we face the COVID-19 pandemic, I am one of those to be asked, and I humbly try to contribute. So, what ... Read more »
In the wake of the foiled terrorist attack at a mosque outside Oslo on 10 August, and the widespread solidarity seen outside mosques around Norway on the morning of Eid, we reflect on the prospects for hope and for the endurance of social fabric. We do so by drawing on ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Friday, 28 April 2017
The relationship between memory and conflict is one of several themes highlighted by the NECORE project, and it has recently come into focus again in an emotional way, related to the tragic events of 22/7. The bone of contention is the projected Utøya memorial. Where should such a memorial for ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Thursday, 26 January 2017
Many people are afraid of what faces us with Donald Trump as president. Nonetheless, I recommend keeping a cool head. My area of research should be useful for analyzing and understanding politics, namely political philosophy. This is the branch of philosophy that investigates political ideas and attempts to put them ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Tuesday, 27 December 2016
Decency, humility, and thoughtfulness are core virtues in a civilized society. Now we need to fight for them. «Political correctness» can be a sinister labeling for common decency «Political correctness» can be a sinister labeling for common decency. A wish to preserve dignity and openness, and to avoid willfully disrespecting others’ ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Friday, 22 July 2016
Five years have passed since the shocking events of 22 July 2011. We still notice how these events have taken hold of us. We notice it all the more when similar terrorist attacks take place elsewhere in the world: in Istanbul, Dallas or Nice. We shed tears in sympathy with ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Wednesday, 20 July 2016
As 22 July 2011 becomes a more distant memory, we are overwhelmed with massacres and terrorist attacks in other parts of the world, including fierce attacks in Turkey, France, and the United States. At the time of writing, the terrorist attack in Nice, France, is the most recent. Many of ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Friday, 27 November 2015
In his New Year’s Eve speech last year, King Harald used the expression “We should say kind words”. Some weeks later, many of us were saying “Je suis Charlie”, expressing solidarity with a periodical that published satire that many people certainly found was not kind at all. Can we reconcile ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Wednesday, 9 September 2015
We must both take in refugees and preserve our culture and way of living. A flood of migrants is coming to Europe. They are fleeing chaos and war. They are from all levels of society. The vast majority would have remained in their homelands if they had been able. But ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Wednesday, 22 July 2015
Four years have passed since the biggest terror attacks on Norwegian soil during peacetime. Once again we are solemnly commemorating the dead and expressing our solidarity. The debate about the potential uses of the actual sites that were affected is also very much alive and continuing. But are there other ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Thursday, 9 April 2015
The Hitler analogy – also known as the Munich analogy – is deployed frequently in political debate. In Munich in 1938, the British prime minister made the historic error of failing to comprehend the extent of the evil represented by Adolf Hitler. Chamberlain signed a peace agreement with Hitler that ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Thursday, 15 January 2015
Why do satirists and critics of religion have to be so provocative? Why must they publish images that they know to be offensive to some people’s beliefs and traditions – and that brutal extremists may use as a pretext for terrorist acts? That such questions are asked is understandable. But ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Thursday, 21 August 2014
Recent weeks have shown us – yet again – how complex and terrible war is. We can all agree that terrorism and brutal fanaticism must be met with robust responses. But it is easy to say that one must do “something” (not to mention that one must do “more”). When ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Friday, 27 June 2014
One of the most famous anecdotes about the passing of time is from the early 1970s, when Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai was asked what he thought about the French Revolution, to which he replied: ‘It is too early to say’. The fact that the interpreter has later pointed out that ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse & Odin Lysaker on Wednesday, 30 October 2013
”This is moralism‘, we were told after having published an op-ed in one of the largest Norwegian newspapers, Aftenposten, in June 2013. This reaction made us even more curious about whether ethics is of any relevance to citizens’ freedom of expression. In our view, the critique is due to the ... Read more »
Posted by Henrik Syse on Thursday, 29 September 2011
Abraham Lincoln once said: ‘It is hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.’ It takes belief and faith, it takes self-confidence and persistence, to lead a cavalry charge against injustice – and John Lewis has displayed all of those qualities. He has ... Read more »