This week is not only fall break in the Oslo schools, it is also the week when the worlds eyes zoom in on Oslo. On Friday, at 11 pm, the announcement of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate takes place. It is unlikely that we will have the same stir as that surrounding last year’s prize to Obama. Yet, I have already had quite some media interests, and my Friday calendar is starting to take shape.
I hope that quite a few of you will be at PRIO on Friday, and that – depending on who the winner is – you will serve as a standby force. There is always a need for factual background on the laureate, for contextualizing the award in relation to larger trends of peace and conflict, and for informed comments of any sort. As I will be fully occupied from the moment of the announcement, I ask you to contact Halvor with whatever you have as soon as the announcement is made.
Last week, I lectured at the International Press Center in Oslo. The journalists there told me that for them, the Nobel announcement was the highlight of the year. This week I shall give two more presentations, one at USIP in Washington on Wednesday, one at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo on Thursday.
As you understand, I am in DC now, together with Halvor and Arne Strand, for an organizational meeting in our new CMI-PRIO-USIP project on Afghan reconciliation. I just met with Hamish Nixon, hired to PRIO as the main consultant on the project. I also use the occasion here to meet other PRIOites, including Morten and Stein, and to conduct a few interviews for a comparative project on whole-of-government policy development towards Afghanistan. Unfortunately, it is cold and raining, but otherwise, it shall be a few very interesting days in Washington, where Afghanistan remains on top of the agenda.
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