Speaker: Dr Kristoffer Lidén, The Peace Research Institute Oslo

Chair: Professor Marsha Henry, QUB

Should Ukraine give up territory in exchange for peace?  Should Hamas be treated as the representative of Palestinians in Gaza?  Is US President Donald Trump a legitimate mediator?  These sorts of questions evoke broader ethical questions of how peace negotiations should be conducted and how their outcome should be assessed.  There are strong moral opinions on these matters but no established framework for discussing them in a comprehensive manner.  

In this Seminar, Kristoffer Lidén will present his recent work on ethical questions in peace negotiations.  Bringing together a range of literatures, he will present a framework of analysis that integrates questions of process and outcome.  The framework will be illustrated by current and historical examples.  The talk is an invitation to a conversation between philosophy and social science, and no expertise in philosophical ethics is required.

For background, see: Ethics in Peace Negotiations: Key Questions – Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)

Kristoffer Lidén

Kristoffer Lidén is a Senior Researcher and Research Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).  Working on the ethics of international affairs, his research spans the topics of peacemaking, humanitarian action, security politics and digital technology.

Professor Marsha Henry

Professor Marsha Henry is the Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women, Peace, Security and Justice at the Mitchell Institute.  Her research is concerned with the gendered and racialised politics of violence; militarisation; global south development; international aid and intervention; and conflict, peace, and security.   She is the author of several books, the latest of which is: The End of Peacekeeping:  Gender, Race, and the Martial Politics of Intervention (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024). 

Marsha has also advised a number of national governments on women’s participation in the armed forces, combatting sexual exploitation and abuse in humanitarian settings, and developing anti-racist and diversity strategies in foreign policy ministries.