Magnus Öberg
Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor at Department of Peace and Conflict Research
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 27 87
- Mobile phone:
- +46 70 167 90 86
- E-mail:
- Magnus.Oberg@pcr.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Gamla Torget 3, 1tr
753 20 Uppsala - Postal address:
- Box 514
751 20 UPPSALA
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Short presentation
I am a Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), and I served as Head of Department 2012-2017.
My research interests include the causes and consequences of civil war civil war, including the psychology of grievances, escalation processes, forced migration, and traumatization and social preferences. My research has appeared in e.g. Journal of Peace Research, European Journal of International Relations, and Conflict Management and Peace Science.
Research
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
The Moral Psychology of Grievances in Intrastate Conflict
The purpose of this project is to use recent advances in research on moral psychology to better specify the conditions in society that generate grievances sufficiently strong to risk armed conflict. It focuses specifically on the role of three previously overlooked moral dimensions that figure prominently in nationalist, religious and authoritarian mobilization.
Moral emotions rest on six foundations: care, fairness, liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity – each can generate grievances. Yet research on grievances and conflict focus almost exclusively on the three former moral dimensions. We have some knowledge of why people are motivated to fight suffering (care), inequality (fairness), and oppression (liberty), but little knowledge of how grievances based on loyalty, authority and sanctity/purity affect conflict. This gap in our knowledge is on exactly the issues that figure most prominently in the narratives of nationalist, jihadist and authoritarian movements.
The first contribution of the project is to develop a better understanding of these neglected dimensions. The second contribution is to model how moral values condition the effects of social, political and economic factors on intrastate conflict. The thrid is to model how major societal transitions generates conflict over the moral order itself.
The Project is funded by the Swedish Research Council grant #2018-02108

Publications
Selection of publications
Organized violence, 1989-2018 and peace agreements
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 589-603, 2019
Understanding Peace Research: Methods and Challenges
Routledge, 2011
Part of European Journal of International Relations, p. 505-536, 2009
- DOI for Are ‘New Wars’ More Atrocious?: Battle Severity, Civilians Killed and Forced Migration Before and After the End of the Cold Wa
- Download full text (pdf) of Are ‘New Wars’ More Atrocious?: Battle Severity, Civilians Killed and Forced Migration Before and After the End of the Cold Wa
Managing Intrastate Low-intensity Armed Conflict 1993-2004: A New Dataset
Part of International Interactions, p. 58-85, 2009
Resource, governance and civil conflict
Routledge, 2008
Time to Go?: Duration Dependence in Forced Migration
Part of International Interactions, p. 129-152, 2006
Recent publications
2025
Organized violence 1989-2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 673-693, 2024
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups
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Organized violence 1989-2022, and the return of conflict between states
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 691-708, 2023
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2022, and the return of conflict between states
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Organized violence 1989-2021 and drone warfare
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 593-610, 2022
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2021 and drone warfare
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Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 809-825, 2021
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
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All publications
Articles in journal
Organized violence 1989-2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 673-693, 2024
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups
- Download full text (pdf) of Organized violence 1989-2023, and the prevalence of organized crime groups
Organized violence 1989-2022, and the return of conflict between states
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 691-708, 2023
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2022, and the return of conflict between states
- Download full text (pdf) of Organized violence 1989-2022, and the return of conflict between states
Organized violence 1989-2021 and drone warfare
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 593-610, 2022
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2021 and drone warfare
- Download full text (pdf) of Organized violence 1989-2021 and drone warfare
Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 809-825, 2021
- DOI for Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
- Download full text (pdf) of Organized violence 1989-2020, with a special emphasis on Syria
Part of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2021
- DOI for War exposure, altruism and the recalibration of welfare tradeoffs towards threatening social categories
- Download full text (pdf) of War exposure, altruism and the recalibration of welfare tradeoffs towards threatening social categories
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 597-613, 2020
Organized violence, 1989-2018 and peace agreements
Part of Journal of Peace Research, p. 589-603, 2019
Early conflict prevention in ethnic conflicts, 1990-1998: a New Data Set
Part of Conflict Management and Peace Science, p. 69-93, 2009
Part of European Journal of International Relations, p. 505-536, 2009
- DOI for Are ‘New Wars’ More Atrocious?: Battle Severity, Civilians Killed and Forced Migration Before and After the End of the Cold Wa
- Download full text (pdf) of Are ‘New Wars’ More Atrocious?: Battle Severity, Civilians Killed and Forced Migration Before and After the End of the Cold Wa
Managing Intrastate Low-intensity Armed Conflict 1993-2004: A New Dataset
Part of International Interactions, p. 58-85, 2009
The Threat of Violence and Forced Migration: Geographical Scope Trumps Intensity of Fighting
Part of Civil Wars, p. 156-173, 2007
Time to Go?: Duration Dependence in Forced Migration
Part of International Interactions, p. 129-152, 2006
Books
Resource, governance and civil conflict
Routledge, 2008
Chapters in book
Gathering conflict information using news resources
Part of Understanding peace research, p. 47-73, Routledge, 2011
Improving Information Gathering and Evaluation
Part of Understanding Peace Research, p. 185-198, Routledge, 2011
Doing Empirical Peace Research
Part of Understanding Peace Research: Methods and Challenges, p. 3-13, Routledge, 2011
Part of Resources, governance and civil conflict, Routledge, 2008
Part of Resources, governance and civil conflict, Routledge, 2008
Part of Fogo Sobre os Media, Coimbra: Quarteto, 2003
Teaching Conflict Analysis: Suggestions on the Use of Media as a Resource for Conflict Analysis
Part of The Emotion and the Truth: Studies in Mass Communication and Conflict, HumanitariaNet, Bilbao, 2003
Part of Coloquio, Tribunal de Supremo Justicia, 2001
Collections (editor)
Understanding Peace Research: Methods and Challenges
Routledge, 2011
Comprehensive doctoral thesis
Conference papers
Challenges from within: Introducing the Uppsala Coup Events Dataset
2011
Third Party Mediated Talks in Intrastate Low-Intensity Conflicts: Topics and Timing
2010
Quality of Government and Civil War
2010
Conflict Prevention in Ethnic Conflicts, 1990-1998
2006
Nothing New Under the Sun: The Atrociousness of 'New wars'
2006
Quality of Government and Civil War
2005
2005
Signaling and Self-Selection: The Escalation of Ethnic Conflict to War
2003
Intensity, Scope, and Duration: Accounting for Variations in Forced Migration 1964-1999
2003
Challenges to State Authority: An empirical test of a costly signaling model of ethnic conflict
2002
Ethnic Challenges to State Authority 1990-1998
2001
2000
Explaining Interethnic Cooperation
1998
1998