Research Interests
- Ethics of international affairs
- Peacemaking
- Humanitarian action
- Security politics
- Digital technology
- Global governance
- International law
Background
Kristoffer Lidén is a Senior researcher at PRIO and the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS). Holding a PhD in Philosophy and MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, his research centres on the ethics of international affairs, with a focus on the fields of peacemaking, humanitarian action, security and digital technologies.
Lidén heads the PRIO Research Group on Law and Ethics and currently leads the RCN funded project Red Lines and Grey Zones: exploring the ethics of humanitarian negotiations, and co-leads On Fair Terms: the ethics of peace negotiations and mediation. He has initiated, coordinated and worked on several NRC, Nordforsk and EU funded projects, including Liberal Peace and the Ethics of Peacebuilding; Protection of Civilians: from principle to practice; and CORE: Cultures of governance and conflict resolution in Europe and India. He was responsible for work packages on ethics, law and human rights in SOURCE: Virtual Centre of Excellence on Societal Security in Europe and NordSTEVA: Nordic Centre of Excellence on Security Technology and Societal Values. Lidén coordinated the UiO-NTNU-PRIO Research School on Peace and Conflict from its inception in 2011 until 2017.
Working Experience:
2014-: Senior Researcher, PRIO.
2019-21: Deputy Director, Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies (NCHS)
2018: Acting Research Director, Dimensions of Security Department, PRIO.
2018: Acting Director, Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies.
2011-17: Coordinator, Research School on Peace and Conflict, PRIO.
2007-14: Researcher, PhD Candidate, PRIO.
2006-07: Coordinator and lecturer, Peace and Conflict Studies in Puducherry, India.
2006: Young Researcher at the Universities of Saarbrücken, Germany and Tilburg, Holland, as part of the EU funded project Applied Global Justice.
2004-05: MA stipend at PRIO.
2002-03: CO as research assistant at PRIO, Ethics, Norms and Identities programme.
Education:
2014: PhD in Philosophy, University of Oslo. Member of the Research School of The Ethics Programme, University of Oslo.
2006: European Research Training Network, Applied Global Justice, University of Saarbrücken, Germany, and University of Tilburg, Netherlands.
2005: MA in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Oslo. Philosophy specialisation.
2003: Major module in Philosophy, graduate level, University of Oslo. Thesis on 'Spinoza's Ethics of War and Peace.'
2002 Cand. mag. with the subjects Philosophy, Sociology and Anthropology at the universities of Oslo and Bergen.
Blog Posts
Posted by Lars Christie, Bashshar Haydar & Kristoffer Lidén on Thursday, 17 November 2022
In spite of widespread support for the sanctions against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, international economic sanctions remain a controversial instrument in world politics. In this blog post, we discuss how the ethical criteria of just cause, proportionality, last resort and reasonable chance of success can help us think ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén on Wednesday, 17 February 2021
As a result of their criteria for what counts as risks, the national risk assessments of the Nordic countries currently resemble the crime genre of Nordic Noir, where the Nordic societies are rendered in a gloomy but revealing light. By zooming in on potential crises without placing these in a ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén on Friday, 29 January 2021
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the political potential of National Risk Assessments (NRAs). The consistent focus of European NRAs on the risk of pandemics while public attention was glued to terrorism demonstrates their relevance to the question of how to prevent and prepare for future disasters – be they natural or ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén & Kristina Roepstorff on Monday, 12 October 2020
When turning humanitarian principles into practice, humanitarian organisations are faced with a range of difficult ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas are rarely as tangible as when the organisations negotiate with local counterparts for access and programming in settings of armed conflict. This dimension of humanitarian negotiations remains to be systematically studied, ... Read more »
Tirsdag 24. mars ble den nye koronaloven vedtatt av Stortinget. Dagen før arrangerte Juridisk fakultet og PRIO webinaret “Korona og rettsstaten: hva skal vi med fullmaktsloven”. Arrangementet gikk via Zoom og hadde 600 deltagere. En redigert versjon kan også sees på youtube. Webinaret – som i utgangspunktet skulle spisse kritikken ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén on Wednesday, 8 June 2016
In the recent World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul 23-24 May, the interconnections between humanitarianism, development and security were highlighted. Recognising that humanitarian assistance alone cannot address ‘the needs of over 130 million of the world’s most vulnerable people’, the conference chair’s summary report states: ‘A new and coherent approach is ... Read more »
The Protection of Civilians (PoC) expands the responsibility of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for international peace and security to the internal affairs of conflict-ridden countries. As such, it bolsters the authority of the five permanent members (the P5) in world politics and presents them with a flexible tool for ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén on Friday, 10 April 2015
The tragedy in Syria bears witness to the deep crisis afflicting the international commitment to the “protection of civilians”. But there is a way out. Against the background of a politically divided Security Council, there is a need for a new international strategy to protect civilians caught up in armed ... Read more »
Posted by Kristoffer Lidén on Monday, 8 December 2014
It was not until the advances of IS in Syria and Iraq turned into an international security threat that a military intervention was launched in September 2014. A horrendous civil war had then killed tens of thousands Syrian civilians and displaced millions without provoking any similar reaction. In this blog ... Read more »