– Which research project are you most preoccupied with?
– My new ERC Advanced Grant, WOW (the Waging of War). This project examines what happens during war. Despite decades of research, we still know far less about wartime dynamics than about what causes or ends conflict. The Waging of War project addresses this gap by exploring how the organization of warring parties affects the conduct of war and how the fighting impacts the belligerents' organizational structure.
– What do you hope to find out?
– WOW addresses three central research questions:
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How are wars fought?
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How does the organization of a belligerent party affect the way they wage war?
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How do the dynamics of the war affect the organization of the fighting parties?
– Why is this important?
– War dynamics are important because they determine winners and losers, and the nature of the resolution of conflict. War dynamics also have severe consequences for affected communities and societies and influence the prospects for rebuilding.
– Who are you collaborating with?
– I am collaborating with my colleagues at the University of Oslo, H?vard Strand in the Political Science Department and Andreas Fol? Tollefsen in Human Geography. I am also working with Marianne Dahl, Louise Olsson, and Siri Rustad at PRIO. In addition, Aila Matanock at the University of California, San Diego, Melanie Sauter at the University of Mannheim, and Kaushik Roy at Jadavpur University in India will be part of the project.
– What do you look for when choosing collaborators?
– I have worked with most of these scholars and found that we work well together. All of them are highly engaged in their research. They are all hard working, knowledgeable, and curious.
– What other research projects are you involved in?
– I am leading a Research Council of Norway Infrastruktur project, called Peace Science Infrastructure (PSI). This project is based at PRIO in collaboration with Political Science and Informatics at the University of Oslo, and the UCDP project at Uppsala University. We are working on developing new infrastructure using large language models (AI) to record events and actors, aiming to vastly improve researchers access to quality data, especially with regard to issues relating to peace and war.
– What do you think is the most interesting aspect of being a researcher?
– Puzzle solving. In the social sciences, to think theoretically one must be genuinely puzzled by social phenomena. I do not use the term “genuine puzzles” lightly. They are not simple open-ended questions but refer to perplexity over specific and patterned outcomes. In other words, when something does not fit with something else. Solving such puzzles leads to eureka moments. The joy of discovery.