Archive News & Announcements - 2026

  Professor Stein Tønnesson has been appointed as the new Director of Toda Peace Institute. On 1 January 2026, he took over the role held by Professor Kevin Clements since 2017. Previously, Professor Tønnesson was the Toda Peace Institute Senior Research Fellow for the thematic area Peace and Security in Northeast Asia. Professor Tønnesson is a prominent Norwegian scholar in peace research and history. His work has primarily focused on peace in East Asia, nation-building in Southeast Asia, conflict in the South China Sea, revolution and war in Vietnam, and the role of social media in Myanmar’s internal armed conflicts. Since 2022, Professor Tønnesson has been research professor emeritus at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo (PRIO) where he served as Research Professor from 2009–2022 and Director from 2001–2009. His experience includes leading the East Asia Peace Program at Uppsala University and serving as a Randolph Jennings Senior Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. He has held professorships and research fellowships at the University of Oslo and the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies.  Professor Tønnesson has published the monograph Explaining the East Asian Peace (NIAS Press 2017) and contributed to Debating the East Asian Peace (Bjarnegård and Kreutz, eds., NIAS Press 2017). His most recent book is a Norwegian-language history of the Vietnam War: En kort introduksjon til Vietnamkrigen (CappelenDamm 2023). He is also associate editor for Asia in the Journal of Peace Research. “It is a great privilege to take over the directorship of the Toda Peace Institute,” said Professor Tønnesson. “Under the leadership of Kevin Clements, the organisation has honed its focus on research and publishing, making a significant contribution to scholarship and policy in key thematic areas. I intend to build on this legacy to ensure that Toda Peace Institute connects scholars, policy makers and practitioners.” Professor Clements will continue as Honorary Director and takes up a new role as Senior Research Fellow with a focus on managing nuclear risk in Northeast Asia. Professor Kai He, a prominent Australian international relations scholar at Griffith University, known for his research on China, US-China relations, and the Indo-Pacific, will join Toda Peace Institute as Senior Research Fellow for Peace and Security in Northeast Asia.