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Critical Thinking on Peace (CRITPEACE)

With security, militarization, and the expansion of defense capabilities dominating political discourse, the CRITPEACE network fosters knowledge-based discussions about peace and societal resilience in the Nordic region.

Map of the Nordic countries

Photo: mozZz / Adobe Stock

About the network

CRITPEACE supports knowledge-based discussions about peace and the concept of peace with the objective that evidence-based research about sustaining peace and preventing conflict and war gains a greater place in public discourse in Norway and the Nordic region. CRITPEACE is interdisciplinary and involves researchers and academics based in the region. It will be coordinated from the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law (IKRS) at the University of Oslo by Professor Kristin Bergtora Sandvik. All activities will be self-funded.

Objectives

The shift towards militarization and increased defense spending challenges the Nordic welfare model and long-established research knowledge about the risks of securitizing society and the basic elements of sustaining peace and societal resilience. The lack of public debate about defense investments, coupled with limited social science and legal expertise on military procurement, and the weakening of the traditional Nordic peace movement, constitutes a democratic concern.

Peace researchers as well as their critics seem to have taken the ‘content’ of Nordic societal peace for granted. It is now necessary to re-engage to gain a better understanding of how shifting global and regional (Nordic, Arctic, European) security landscapes affect the Nordic polity, including the fact that Nordic countries are also major arms producers and exporters.

Over the past few decades, Nordic peace research has primarily focused on countries and communities affected by conflict and war—often in regions far removed from the everyday lives and political and economic realities of Nordic citizens. However, the war in Ukraine and growing geopolitical tensions have heightened the risk of conflict in or near the Nordic region. In response, there is an urgent need for Nordic peace research to build capacity and become more policy-relevant for those responsible for managing peace and security in the region. This includes regaining public visibility and investing in critical engagement and dialogue at the national and Nordic levels.

CRITPEACE aims to support this shift by promoting the use, adaptation, and application of insights developed by the Nordic peace research community to the current realities of the Nordic region and its wider neighborhood, including the Arctic, Baltic, and European peace and security landscape. CRITPEACE also focuses on how communal peace agendas – perhaps often not sufficiently recognized as peace-building efforts – shape configurations of peace in the Nordics. This includes post-terror and mass violence legal settlements, anti-war and climate action, solidarity movements, and reconciliation processes between Nordic majority populations and the peoples of Sápmi and Greenland.

Activities

Planned:

  • The Nordic peace: past, present, future. A joint strategic initiative involving the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI),  Lund University, the Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Tampere University, the Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies (HL), the University of Stavanger (UiS), Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). This Nordic language event will explore the Nordic concept of peace yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
  • Norwegian defense procurement: building critical competence and supporting public debate.  Funded by UiO: Democracy, this capacity-building initiative will host Norwegian language public events on the lifecycle of responsible defense procurement, the reform of defense procurement legislation, and the politics of defense procurement.  The initiative will also host an academic conference. 

Past:

Publications

Commentary

Background readings  

Cooperation

The network is associated with the project 'Law under deglobalization: socio-legal perspectives on democracy, migration, technology, and war' (DEGLOBAL).

Duration

2025–2027

Organizer

CRITPEACE is coordinated by Professor Kristin Bergtora Sandvik.

Members

Published Sep. 15, 2025 8:36 AM - Last modified Jan. 28, 2026 4:12 PM
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