Like many of his contemporaries, Sverre Lodgaard began his career in peace and conflict studies working at PRIO as a student researcher there in the late 1960s. By 1971 he had obtained his master’s degree in political science from the University of Oslo and three years later became the Director of Research at PRIO at the age of 26. He had already begun to specialize in questions of nuclear proliferation, security and disarmament and in 1980 he became Director of European Security and Disarmament Studies at SIPRI, a post that he held until 1986.
In the following year he returned to PRIO as its Director, a position which he held until 1992, when he formally left the Institute for the United Nations in Geneva, where he headed the Institute for Disarmament Research [UNIDIR] for four years. He then spent 10 years as the Director of the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs [NUPI] before he decided to retire from formal administration and began to enjoy the freedom of becoming a Senior Research Fellow at NUPI, continuing his abiding interests in European security and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation, but adding such issues as the Arab Spring and the conundrum of Iran to his range of interests.
Quite apart from his official positions, Sverre Lodgaard has almost inevitably been centrally involved in the Pugwash movement, both as a member of the Council and more recently on the Executive Committee. He has been a council member on the United Nations University for Peace. In the 1990’s he was a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, and has represented Norway at numerous conferences on arms control and disarmament. At home, he has chaired the international relations committee of the Labour Party and has been a member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Dr. Lodgaard has written extensively on topics such as human security, zero options, non-nuclear defence and the problems of creating a [relatively] safe regime for nuclear weapons that could involve “outsiders” such as India, Pakistan and Israel. His most recent book is Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation [London; Routledge; 2011].
