Peter Wallensteen

Senior Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, since 2012.

Dag Hammarskjöld Professor of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University 1985-2012.

Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame, since 2018.

Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research Professor of Peace Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, 2006-2018.

Member of the Advisory Board of the Kroc Institute from 2019.

Member of the Board of the Alva Myrdal Centre for Nuclear Disarmament

Peter Wallensteen is now Senior Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University (since 2012) and Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame, USA (since 2018). From 1985 to 2012 Wallensteen was the first holder of the Dag Hammarskjöld Chair in Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University. He was also the Head of Department from 1972-1999, thus being heavily involved in the creation of all aspects of the Department. He was also the first holder of the position as the Richard G. Starmann Sr. Research Professor of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame, USA (2006-2018).

Prior to this he was setting up (together with Lena Wallensteen and Bo Schiller) the first courses in Development Studies, and leading the unit for its first years.

In addition to the affiliations with Uppsala University and the University of Notre Dame he was an Associate of the Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala (2014-19), and is a Senior Research Fellow of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Uppsala, since 2015. Presently he is also a government appointed member of Advisory Council (Insynrådet) of the Folke Bernadotte Academy (until end of 2021). He was a member of the Advisory Council for the project on Varieties of Peace (Umeå University, 2017-2019). He was the coordinator for Chapter 10 in the report of the International Panel on Social Progress (with Prof. Michel Wieviorka, Paris) on Violence, Wars, Peace, Security, and international scholarly effort published in volume 2 of Rethinking Society for the 21st Century, Cambridge University Press 2018.

Research:

From 1978 to 2015 he directed the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) and a number of his publications build on the work within this program. One example is the book Understanding Conflict Resolution which now is in its fifth, revised and extended edition (Sage, 2019, previous editions are translated into Arabic and Korean). It is used in teaching world-wide.

Among his most recent publications note Quality Peace (Oxford University Press 2015), which broadens the perspective on post-war peacebuilding. With Madhav Joshi, the edited book Understanding Quality Peace(Routledge 2018) further deepens this, through general studies and case analyses. This relates in particular to his association with the Kroc Institute, University of Notre Dame, where there has been a close collaboration between UCDP and the Peace Accords Matrix, PAM.

With Ambassador and Visiting Fellow Anders Bjurner he edited Regional Organizations in Peacemaking (Routledge 2014), which asks the question whether regional organizations constitute challenges to the United Nations.

Peace Research: Theory and Practice (Routledge 2011, in Chinese 2014) brings together his work on war causes, conflict resolution, sanctions and academic diplomacy.

With Isak Svensson he published The Go-Between on mediation experiences (USIP Press 2010) and their book on Nordic mediators Fredens Diplomater (Diplomats of Peace, in Swedish) came out in 2016. The authors are now working on an English volume on this topic.

Wallensteen’s first major research project concerned economic sanctions and he continues to be engaged in this issue. In 2001-2003 the Department and Wallensteen led an inter-governmental effort to reform UN sanctions and making targeted sanctions work more effectively. The website smartsanctions.se reports on this. In the new Alva Myrdal center for nuclear disarmament, Wallensteen will coordinate a working group dealing with sanctions and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, beginning 2021.

Teaching:

In Uppsala the course Classics in Peace Research is regularly offered to the new Ph.D. candidates.

With Isak Svensson he set up a new course on Maters level in 2013 on Conflict Resolution and Leadership and Svensson is now pursuing this. Wallensteen is teaching in the course of Negotiation and Mediation.

At Notre Dame the course International Peace Research: Origins, Methodologies, Results, was initially offered for Master students (in 2006) and was compulsory reading for Ph.D. students 2008-17. In the fall semester of 2018 he co-taught Peace Research, Peace Policy and Power with Prof. George Lopez. That was the last course talked at the Kroc Institute.

Wallensteen is a guest lecturer at a host of other courses, as invited by the teachers in the Department and internationally.

A special commitment has been the Philosophy Tea sessions, given 2-3 times each semester at the Regina Theatre, Reginateatern, Uppsala, discussing different philosophers, writers or practitioners that have contributed to peace thinking through the ages. He and guest researcher Daniel Ogden engages in a one-hour long discussion on pertinent writers or works. This was initiated as part of the Uppsala Year of Peace, 2014, and has continued since then. Most of the discussions can be followed as a pod-cast from the Reginateatern, on Spotify and some also at YouTube.

Other Assignments:

He is the Inspector (Custodian), Västmanlands-Dala Nation (Student Organization), Uppsala University, 2016-2021.

He has been appointed for the period 2013-17 by Uppsala University Rector to chair the committee for the Martin H:son Holmdahl prize to teachers, students or staff at Uppsala University that have made special efforts to promote human rights. This includes the annual Holmdahl lecture on human rights. His tenure was extended for five years in 2018.

He is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Swedish Physicians against Nuclear Weapons.

The government named him a member of the Reference Council for the Swedish Membership in the UN Security Council, within the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Stockholm for 2017-18.

The Department has recorded a lecture on the origins and developments of peace research globally and at Uppsala University with Professor Peter Wallensteen:

http://media.medfarm.uu.se/play/video/1894

Presently Wallensteen is doing research on Quality Peace and the edited publication Understanding Quality Peace. Peacebuilding after Civil War (with Madhav Joshi) was published in February 2018 (Routledge).

Nordic Mediation: Assessing Success in Mediation, building on the work with Isak Svensson and published in Swedish in 2016, Fredens Diplomater. Från Bernadotte till Ahtisaari (Stockholm: Santérus).

Senior Advisor, Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) since Aug. 1, 2015. Founder 1978 and Director of this program until 2015.

Directing The Special Program on International Targeted Sanctions (SPITS), initiated in 2001, part time. Continued work includes updating the SPITS Sanctions list by Ms. Helena Grusell and projects with Dr. Mikael Eriksson.