Attitudes for Peace

Led by Karin Dyrstad
Mar 2015 - Nov 2018

What do people think about the institutions adopted to build peace after civil war? The short answer is simply: we do not know.

The ‘Attitudes for peace’ research project addresses this shortcoming by conducting public opinion surveys in three postconflict countries (Guatemala, Nepal and Northern Ireland), asking about ordinary citizens’ thoughts and feelings about different peacebuilding strategies.

This project is hosted at NTNU, and a partnership between NTNU, SINTEF and PRIO, and is led by Karin Dyrstad at NTNU.

This project aims to investigate two key relationships:

How do different peacebuilding strategies influence institutional trust in postwar societies?
What is the relation between support for postwar institutions and peace?

Central to both questions is the dynamics between the institutions engineered to build peace – the peacebuilding strategies – and citizens' support for these. We argue that variations in peacebuilding strategies affect how people perceive these institutions, and that these perceptions, in turn, are closely related to whether people will support or participate in violent opposition against the government in the future.

Please see the project page at SINTEF for more elaborate information.

Members

Research Groups

Publications

Peer-reviewed Journal Article

Dyrstad, Karin; Helga Malmin Binningsbø & Kristin M. Bakke (2022) Wartime Experiences and Popular Support for Peace Agreements: Comparative Evidence from Three Cases, Journal of Conflict Resolution 66(9): 1562–1588.

Dyrstad, Karin; Kristin M. Bakke & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2021) Perceptions of Peace Agreements and Political Trust in Post-War Guatemala, Nepal, and Northern Ireland, International Peacekeeping. DOI: 10.1080/13533312.2020.1869541.

Dyrstad, Karin & Solveig Hillesund (2020) Explaining Support for Political Violence: Grievance and Perceived Opportunity, Journal of Conflict Resolution 64(9): 1724–1753.

Dyrstad, Karin & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2019) Between Punishment and Impunity: Public Support for Reactions against Perpetrators in Guatemala, Nepal and Northern Ireland, International Journal of Transitional Justice. DOI: 10.1093/ijtj/ijy032: 1–30.

Seymour, Lee JM; Kristin M. Bakke & Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham (2016) E pluribus unum, ex uno plures: Competition, violence, and fragmentation in ethnopolitical movements, Journal of Peace Research 53(1): 3–18.

Conference Paper

Brounéus, Karen; Erika Forsberg; Karin Dyrstad & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2017) The Gendered Links between War-Related Trauma and Attitudes to Peace: Exploring Survey Data from Guatemala, Nepal, and Northern Ireland, presented at 58th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association, Baltimore, 22–25 February.

Dyrstad, Karin & Helga Malmin Binningsbø (2017) Perceptions of transitional justice mechanisms in Guatemala, Nepal, and Northern Ireland, presented at European Consortium of Political Science Conference, Oslo, 7–9 September.