t is hardly of any importance to the world, but it is to me as a peace scholar, TFF co-founder and director: On September 1, 2025, it was 50 years since I got my first article published in what was the flagship of peace and conflict research, The Journal of Peace Research, JPR, published out PRIO, Peace Research Institute Oslo – both founded by one of my mentors, Johan Galtung (1930-2024). See it here and here. I was 24 at the time, and it meant everything to me to achieve the honour and recognition of being published in that distinguished journal. While I had begun to follow peace studies at Lund University, courses directed by my other mentor, Håkan Wiberg (1942-2010), in 1972 – I had not dared call myself a peace scholar. I was working towards my PhD in sociology, and sociology was still my primary focus. In 1974, Wiberg suggested I take some courses at the IUC...
