{"id":311022,"date":"2026-01-05T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=311022"},"modified":"2025-12-31T09:12:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T09:12:47","slug":"peace-research-at-lund-university-closed-down-in-1989-why-and-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2026\/01\/peace-research-at-lund-university-closed-down-in-1989-why-and-how\/","title":{"rendered":"Peace Research at Lund University Closed Down in 1989: Why and How?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The main building of Lund University in the heart of this old university town in Southern Sweden.<\/p><\/div>\n

And why I lived happily ever after. This is a piece of Nordic academic history deserving to be shared – an early case of the destruction of Nordic peace and conflict research that followed.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

29 Dec 2025 –\u00a0<\/em>This is the first in a small series of articles and overviews that reflect on what we\u2019ve been doing within our mandate, which has always been to support the Gandhian UN Charter norm that peace shall be established by peaceful means. <\/em><\/p>\n

This is largely ignored by most UN members, which only increases the need for someone like TFF to continue to state the principle\u2019s fundamental importance and hold violators accountable. It remains immoral and unintelligent to use violence wherever peaceful means are<\/em> available – but that is what militarism is also about.<\/p>\n

The story that follows does not paint a bright light on Lund University in this respect. At the time, I was sad to leave this age-old centre of learning and say goodbye to all we had built and its potentially considerable contribution to this pioneering field. Except for Chancellor H\u00e5kan Westling, nobody understood that potential.<\/p>\n

Today, looking back, I have no doubt that leaving Lund University was the best thing to happen to me in my academic career.<\/p>\n

\u25e9<\/p>\n

Last November 2019, it was 30 years since I left Lund University as associate professor and head of the Lund University Peace Research Institute, LUPRI, from 1983-1989.<\/p>\n

I did so, and have been a freelancer ever since because the Faculty of Social Sciences that year had decided to close down all inter or multi-<\/em>disciplinary research and teaching, units and departments at the university \u2013 that is, peace and conflict research, women studies, human rights studies, environmental studies and human ecology studies.<\/p>\n

In my view, this was a disastrous decision for these 7 reasons:<\/p>\n

A)<\/strong> it was made by the faculty without consulting me, I read about it in the minutes from its meetings; so much for the university\u2019s democratic decision-making culture;<\/p>\n

B)<\/strong> the pioneering departments that were to be closed down were all dynamic and innovative, filled with people who had a 24\/7 commitment to their research fields;<\/p>\n

C)<\/strong> it was completely outside the framework of innovative research to close down multi- and inter-disciplinary studies at a time when universities around the world experimented with new structures and problem-solving theme-oriented studies rather than with the old-fashioned institutes\/ departments often characterised by tight and high walls among them;<\/p>\n

I had one meeting with the chairman of the Faculty of Social Science, Professor of cultural geography, Olof W\u00e4rneryd<\/a> (1931-) who, in addition to not listening to any of my arguments but repeating the faculty\u2019s decision, also informed me that:<\/p>\n

D) <\/strong>I had been disloyal to the university by co-founding, with my wife, the private and independent Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, TFF<\/a> which, according to him, was competitive with LUPRI;<\/p>\n

E)<\/strong> Lund University should be maintained as a \u2018discipline<\/em> university\u2019 and all the mentioned academic fields be subsumed under the existing departments;<\/p>\n

F)<\/strong> now that the Cold War had, for all practical purposes ended \u2013 remember, this was 1989 \u2013 there would hardly be any reason to study conflict and peace anymore (!) and, finally<\/p>\n

G)<\/strong> that I would be under investigation as head of the institute for having diverted funds of about Swedish krona 400.000 to TFF \u2013 more of that bizarre and baseless accusation under g) below.<\/p>\n

What follows is my account of how it happened and why and how it felt.<\/p>\n

It goes without saying that I played a somewhat central role in it all and I would not be able to write a completely objective<\/em> account \u2013 if you ever can, even generally, in social science. But then, neither would any of the other people who played a role in this academic drama \u2013 which according to Swedish institutional culture, was not meant to be shared with the public.<\/p>\n

I shared the lack of democratic ethos back then in the local daily Sydsvenska Dagbladet. And I share the events that led to ending peace research at Lund University today.<\/p>\n

After all, universities are public institutions and knowledge communities open to the public, as are lectures. And they are financed by citizens, i.e. taxpayers\u2019 money and the work carried out are supposed to benefit society.<\/p>\n

What did LUPRI do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our tiny institute, LUPRI, was the university\u2019s smallest unit with only my position as associate professor and<\/em> institute director. Peace and conflict studies had been established as a multi-academic working group back in 1963. One of the enthusiasts at that early stage was Bengt H\u00f6glund<\/a><\/em> (1937-2017) and the initiative had the firm support by the university chancellor, Philip Sandblom<\/a><\/em> (1903-2001).<\/p>\n

It had grown considerably in terms of output and people under the very able leadership of H\u00e5kan Wiberg<\/a><\/em> (1942-2010) who left the institute in 1983 to become a professor of sociology in Lund and, later, director of the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, COPRI (1985-2003)<\/a>. COPRI was closed down by the government of Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (under his leadership, Denmark became an occupying country in Iraq 2003-2007 and in 2011 he was, as NATO Secretary-General, responsible for the destruction of Libya).<\/p>\n

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H\u00e5kan Wiberg<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

At LUPRI, we were tasked mainly with running basic and MA courses in a broad range of subjects pertaining to the field of peace and conflict research in its Nordic school. One of the scholars who came by now and then was the Nestor of Nordic peace studies, Johan Galtung<\/a><\/em> (1930- ) who had created the Oslo Peace Research Institute and held the Chair of Conflict and Peace Research at Oslo University.<\/p>\n

We also produced a series of commissioned studies\/research for the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (This was a time when Swedish foreign policy had an emphasis on neutrality, peace-keeping, UN matters, international law, confidence-building security, peace, disarmament, the Olof Palme Commission\u2019s concept of common security, etc. which has basically been abolished since the murder of Palme (1927-1986).<\/p>\n

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