Morten Bøås

Research Professor

Morten Bøås (PhD) is Research Professor and works predominantly on issues concerning peace and conflict in Africa, including issues such as land rights and citizenship conflicts, youths, ex-combatants and the new landscape of insurgencies and geopolitics.

Bøås has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books and published a number of articles for academic journals. He has conducted in-depth fieldwork in a number of African countries and travelled widely elsewhere on the continent.

Education

2001 Dr.Polit. (Ph.D) in Political Science, University of Oslo

1995 The CRE/Copernicus Seminar on Environmental Law

1994 Cand.Polit., in Political Science, University of Oslo

Work Experience

2013- Research professor, NUPI

2010-2012 Head of Research, Fafo’s Institute for Applied International Studies

2002-2010 Research Fellow, Fafo

Publications All publications

Policy brief on the implementation of the EU’s policies
Publication | 2020
- Pernille Rieker
- Mathilde Tomine Eriksdatter Giske
Violent extremism is not a new phenomenon and terrorism has a long history in Europe, often linked to separatist movements, anarchism, and far-right1
Policy brief summarising the lessons learned from assessing the EU’s measures to prevent violent extremism in a comparative perspective
Publication | 2022
- Gilad Ben-Nun
- Ulf Engel
Elapsing 30 months into the PREVEX consortium’s work, synchronizing results from both PREVEX-generated and external research outputs, this policy bri1
Policy brief summarizing lessons learnt on the EU’s measures to prevent violent extremism in the region
Publication | 2022
While most research on violent extremism (VE) focuses on why people turn to violence, this policy brief looks at the issue the other way round. We su1
Policy brief summarizing lessons learnt on the EU’s measures to prevent violent extremism in the region
Publication | 2021
- Francesco Strazzari
How do EU initiatives that are geared to help prevent and counter violent extremism in North Africa and the Sahel match the underlying drivers of rad1
Working Paper on a comparison of ‘enabling environments’, drivers and occurrence/nonoccurrence of violent extremism in the Balkans and the MENA region
Publication | 2022
- Gilad Ben-Nun
- Ulf Engel
The following working paper presents a cross-sectional and cross-regional comparison of the findings by PREVEX project partners across their three re1

Projects All projects

Strengthening Fragile States through Taxation (FRAGTAX)
Research project | 2021 - 2024 (Ongoing)
How is the political authority to tax established, exercised and maintained over time? State-building requires predictable income. Without a domestic revenue base, even core activities states are expe...
Economic growth Governance Development policy Comparative methods Insurgencies Fragile states International economics
Shaping a New Africa-Europe Relationship for a post-Covid-19 global order
Research project | 2020 - 2021 (Completed)
This collaborative project between NUPI, ACCORD and ECFR aims to stimulate and enrich the dialogue in Africa and Europe on the underlying geopolitical, Covid-19, peace and security and other key devel...
Peace operations Economic growth Security policy Terrorism and extremism Human rights Conflict Defence International economics Climate Trade Energy Development policy Humanitarian issues Diplomacy Foreign policy International organizations The EU Europe Africa Cyber AU Migration Regional integration
Jihadist Governance in the Sahel (JIGOV-Sahel)
Research project | 2020 - 2024 (Ongoing)
This project is about jihadist insurgent governance in West Africa's Sahel region....
Conflict Insurgencies Fragile states Africa
Preventing Violent Extremism in the Balkans and the MENA: Strengthening Resilience in Enabling Environments (PREVEX)
Research project | 2019 - 2022 (Ongoing)
The overarching objective of PREVEX is to put forward more fine-tuned and effective approaches to preventing violent extremism....
Terrorism and extremism Conflict Governance The EU Europe The Middle East and North Africa Comparative methods
Migration and Development: Sharing knowledge between Norway and Poland (MiDeShare)
Research project | 2019 - 2021 (Completed)
The aim of this project is to improve our understanding of the relationship between migration and development in order to suggest more effective policies for addressing root causes of migration in wea...
Conflict Migration Development policy Africa The Middle East and North Africa Humanitarian issues Fragile states

Events All events

Human Rights Violations in the Taliban’s Afghanistan
Event
Wed 11 Oct 2023
Time: 12:00 Europe/Oslo | Location: NUPI
HRRL presents the report "Revenge Killings and Other Serious Human Rights Violations in Afghanistan in the Aftermath of the Taliban’s Seizure of Power." The findings will be discussed by Afghanistan experts such as Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, a1
Fragile states and taxation: Evidence from Afghanistan, Liberia, and the Sahel
Event
Tue 30 Aug 2022
Time: 13:30 Europe/Oslo | Location: NUPI
Join us on the 30th of August for an illuminating look into the role taxation and state fragility play in modern state-building.
A New Narrative on Africa
Event
Mon 9 May 2022
Time: 16:15 Europe/Oslo | Location: NUPI/Livestream to Facebook and Youtube
Changing the narrative on Africa and looking beyond aid and potential dependency on it are essential aspects for future development. On 9 May we invite you to a panel debate on this topic.
Book talk: Roadblock politics – The origin of Violence in Central Africa
Event
Wed 8 Jun 2022
Time: 16:00 Europe/Oslo | Location: NUPI
Join us for a journey into the heart of Africa as Peer Schouten paints a captivating picture of the importance of roadblocks in his new book.
The Sahel - fragile states and violent entrepreneurs
Event
Wed 2 Feb 2022
Time: 00:00 Europe/Oslo | Location: YouTube
The Sahel has recently gotten attention from the international community because of the many challenges this realm faces. This webinar marks the end of a three-year long project that has taken a closer look at the Sahel.