Håvard Strand

Håvard Strand is an Associate Professor at the University of Oslo's Department of Political Science, with a concurrent association at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). His academic contributions span peace and conflict research, democratic institutions, and quantitative methods.

• PhD in Political Science, University of Oslo (2007)
• Researcher II at PRIO (2013–present)
• Senior Researcher at PRIO (2008–2013)

Strand's research focuses on:

• Armed conflict dynamics, particularly ceasefire mechanisms and violence patterns
• Democratic regime stability and global democratization trends
• Ethnic inequality and its role in political violence
• Quantitative methodologies for conflict analysis

His recent work, including Bayesian Hidden Markov modeling for ceasefire analysis and the ETH/PRIO Civil Conflict Ceasefire Dataset, underscores his expertise in conflict event quantification. Strand has contributed to key journals such as Annals of Applied Statistics and Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Scientific contributions include:

• Co-developing the PRIO-GRID spatial data structure for conflict research
• Extensive analysis of democratic patterns and ethnic census policies
• Collaborative studies on maternal health disparities and conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa

Strand actively engages in teaching courses like Applied Statistics for Peace and Conflict Studies and Statistical Analysis. He participates in projects such as the Centre for Research Quality and Policy Impact Studies and the Political Data Science research group.