Opening and celebration of PRIO’s Centre for the Study of Civil War, Monday, 6 January 2003

Opening remarks by Ms. Hilde F. Johnson, Minister of International Development, Norway

As delivered

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here today to open PRIO’s Centre for the Study of Civil War – a centre that has competed successfully with many others and has been awarded Centre of Excellence status by the Research Council of Norway in 2002.

The Minister of Education and Research, Kristin Clemet, also sends her regards. As we speak she is busy opening three other centres of excellence in Bergen. This is therefore a great day for Norwegian research.

I was a member of the government that proposed the establishment of a Norwegian programme of centres of excellence in 1999. Belonging to the Government’s own cabinet member research committee – both then and now – I am very happy to see that 13 centres of excellence have already been established. These centres will all receive substantial and predictable funding for the next 10 years.

The Government has high ambitions for education and research in Norway. We want to promote an environment that allows Norwegian research to reach and retain the highest standards. We want to be at the forefront internationally as regards knowledge, competence and innovation. Many of our scientists and research groups have gained international renown. In several areas our research is at the cutting edge. Our long-term goal is to promote research at the Nobel Prize level. We know what this takes. If we are to succeed we must be prepared to make a systematic, long-term effort. Moreover we need to recruit new talent, including women, to research in order to ensure not only continuity, but also new angles and approaches.

Because we are a small nation, our contribution to international research must be based on quality rather than quantity. An important element in our research policy is therefore to emphasise research quality clearly and systematically, and to allocate resources accordingly. This year more than NOK 200 million will be allocated to quality improvement measures.

The Centres of Excellence Programme is the most important measure we have launched for improving quality. I believe that the programme has already had a positive impact on Norwegian research communities. The call for applications to set up centres of excellence has stimulated innovation and forged new bonds between research institutions and between different fields of research. The application process has been dealt with in a highly commendable way by the Research Council of Norway. This also applies to the support provided by individual research institutions to their candidates in the competition.

PRIO’s Centre for the Study of Civil War has chosen an extremely appropriate thematic area for further research. The international community needs to know more about why civil wars break out, how they are sustained and what it takes to end them. We also need to know more about how to prevent conflicts and how to sustain peace.

A range of global conferences, from Rio in 1992 to Johannesburg in 2002, have highlighted the crucial links between the three key goals of the UN Charter: peace, sustainable development and human rights. This is certainly encouraging, but we are still witnessing a wide gap between rhetoric and reality, between promises and results on the ground. Peace is the major precondition for development. Without peace and stability, our fight against poverty is doomed to fail. Without peace the Millennium Development Goals will remain just that – optimistic goals, as opposed to a new and better reality for the most deprived.

As President Jimmy Carter has just reminded the world from the Nobel podium: the gap between rich and poor is widening. He correctly described the chasm between those at either extreme of the continuum as the single most important challenge of our time.

Our world is rapidly shrinking due to globalisation, economic interdependence and advances in technology and communication. Yet peace and human security remain an elusive proposition for far too many people. The vicious spiral of deadly conflict continues. Why?

There are, of course, no easy answers. The causes and consequences of violent conflict differ. Every conflict is different.

But do they have something in common? We know that mass violence usually results from deliberate political decisions by leaders. Internal conflicts revolve around relations of power. They are often based on a perception of gross injustice or violations of rights. Conflicts have their winners and losers and their conflict entrepreneurs. We also know that the uncontrolled, illicit spread of devastating tools of war, like small arms and anti-personnel mines, fuels violent conflicts.

Since World War II, and in particular during the post-Cold War era, conflict patterns have changed. The violent conflicts of our time take place mainly within states, rather than between them. This makes the theme of PRIO’s Centre particularly relevant. Internal conflicts are protracted, persistent and difficult to resolve. They also have far-reaching consequences. About 6 million people were killed in intra-state conflicts during the 1990s. Violence affects the civilian population and hits the weakest groups hardest. Millions of adults and children are left with physical and psychological wounds after traumatic experiences. And the number of victims does not end here. An estimated 300 000 children are soldiers, involved in civil wars. Nearly 40 million people have become refugees and internally displaced as a result of civil wars. Eighty per cent of them are women and children.

This is why we must ensure that such conflicts, which affect so many thousands and millions of people, are given due attention wherever they occur in the world. Although the media tend to deal with only one conflict at a time, the international community has an obligation to address human suffering everywhere.

Massive international humanitarian relief operations are commendable and – I would say – mandatory as an expression of solidarity. They save lives, relieve immediate suffering, and protect innocent people from harm. They do not, however, address the underlying structural causes of conflict. They do not prevent conflicts from breaking out again. And they divert resources from long-term sustainable development programmes.

Better than healing the wounds, applying a cure and repairing the damage, is preventing the conflict from arising in the first place. The challenge for the international community is to identify situations with a potential for conflict and to prevent them from breaking out or, in post-conflict situations, from re-occurring.

In addition to helping to prevent conflicts, the international community can assist in conflict resolution or – as I prefer to call it – peacemaking. The challenge is to facilitate political negotiations that can result in cease-fire agreements and peace accords. Norway’s role as facilitator in various peacemaking processes is well known and appreciated. I believe that this role did not evolve by accident. It may not be a total coincidence that the country that hosted the world’s first peace research institute - and hosts the Nobel Peace Prize - later came to play an important role in promoting peace on several continents.

However, in spite of major efforts to make peace, almost every second resolved conflict disintegrates into renewed violence. Hence, the challenge is to build – or consolidate – peace. Peace-building is a complex challenge that has to address social and economic development as well as political and security issues. We need to recognise and strengthen local and regional ownership. We need in-depth knowledge and analysis of the causes, actors and dynamics of conflicts and peace, good networks, a long-term perspective, sufficient funds, and sustained co-ordination between all the relevant actors.

PRIO has an important role in all of this, since it delivers important research inputs to policy making and operational activities.

The responsibility for peace-building rests with the parties to the conflict, but the international community can help build the necessary competence, capacity, institutions and processes for non-violent conflict management.

External assistance should include long-term plans and initiatives that promote reconciliation, good governance, democratic development and respect for human rights. Refugees and internally displaced persons must be repatriated and reintegrated. Civil society must be reconstructed. And we must not forget the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of ex-combatants, humanitarian mine-related issues, getting small arms under control, and security sector reform. Efforts to consolidate peace must also include long-term measures to promote high-quality and accessible education, health services, and productive sector development.

We need to combat poverty and the structural – and therefore often violent – discrimination of ethnic, social and religious groups. Respect for human rights – all of them – can reduce the risk of conflicts, not least internal conflicts. Respect for human rights may indeed also be one of the major tools for resolving conflicts – and for making peace sustainable in the long term. What we must do is enhance human security, security for the individual to live in freedom from fear and from want.

Global challenges require global solutions. Thus, there is no alternative to strengthening multilateralism. The UN is the only truly global forum where overarching common visions can be achieved. We must support the UN, help make it more efficient and ensure that it can serve as the focal point of our efforts to improve our common future.

PRIO’s Centre for the Study of Civil War is founded on academic excellence and academic independence. It is anchored in a Norwegian institution – PRIO – and will, I am sure, help improve the quality and relevance of Norwegian research. At the same time it is a gateway to the international community. The centre would not have qualified as a centre of excellence without its extensive international network. Eminent scholars will bring the insights and complementary strengths of economics, history, political science, philosophy and sociology to bear on a set of research questions that are all related to the issue of civil war.

The academic community’s job is to make research relevant for those of us who are engaged in operational work. And we on our side need to be receptive, and to make use of research-based knowledge in policy-making and in practice so that we can prevent conflicts, end them and sustain the subsequent peace.

I am convinced that the research to be carried out at this centre would benefit from more participation by women researchers and researchers from conflict-prone countries in the South.

I have noted that there are no women chairing the Centre’s seven working groups. As Professor Galtung – one of PRIO’s own founding fathers – once put it: "The most important carriers of ruthlessness seem to be Protestants, men and economists, particularly if combined." I am sure that Professor Galtung would make an exception for those associated with this centre – but there is certainly some truth in his statement. He also said that "women usually score higher than men on empathy, non-violence and creativity, but they score lower on self-confidence." I hope we’ll see a slightly different gender representation later.

I would like to congratulate all those involved in establishing the new Centre. By achieving the status of centre of excellence you have already gained considerable recognition. And, as you know, with great recognition comes even greater expectations.

I wish you every success in the important work you have set out to do and hope that we can establish fruitful co-operation relations that will be to our mutual benefit.

I hereby have the great pleasure and honour to declare PRIO’s Centre for the Study of Civil War to be open.

Congratulations!