Mariano Aguirre

Mariano Aguirre

Managing Director of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref)

Mariano Aguirre is managing director of the Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre (NOREF). A journalist and analyst on the Middle East, US foreign policy, international conflicts, peacebuilding and peacekeeping, he has written, co-authored and edited several books, among them: La ideología neoimperial: La crisis de EEUU con Irak (Icaria/TNI/CIP 2003), co-authored with Phyllis Bennis and "Humanitarian intervention & us hegemony: a reconceptualization" in Achin Vanaik (Ed.), Selling US Wars, Interlink publishing / Transnational Institute (2007). His most recent contribution is a chapter in Megacities. The Politics of Urban Exclusion and Violence in the Global South , eds, Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt, Zed Books, 2009.

He is a regular contributor to La Vanguardia, El País, Radio France International, OpenDemocracy, The Broker, Le Monde diplomatique, and other international media.

Aguirre holds an MPhil in Peace and Conflict Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, and was a programme officer for the Ford Foundation in New York. He is a fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam. He is professor in postgraduate studies at the Autonomous University of Lisbon, The Human Rights Institute at the Deusto University in Bilbao, and the Ortega y Gasset Institute in Madrid.

Work area:

Peace & Security

Areas of expertise:

Middle East, US Foreign policy, armed conflicts, State and violence

Media experience:

Aguirre is a regular contributor to La Vanguardia, El País, Radio France International, The Broker, Le Monde diplomatique, and other media.

Contact

Email: mariano.aguirre [at] peacebuilding.no

English; Spanish

application/pdf iconmariano aguirre bio.pdf

Selected publications

Selling US Wars
Before Emergency
The emotion and the truth

Download photos

Recent content by Mariano Aguirre

9/11: a perfect pretext, a terrible legacy

September 2011
The tragedy of 11 September 2001 was used by authoritarian forces in the United States as a political opportunity.

What can we expect to see in 2011?

January 2011
Changing global power balances, continuing crises, Iran, Afghanistan. Four TNI fellows share their predictions for 2011.

Pernicious parallels

December 2010
The United States' protracted fight against insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan have raised the spectre of the Vietnam war. A review on recent literature on US wartime policies from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Stresses and strains in the balance of world power

May 2010
The recent Iranian agreement on enriched uranium with Brazil and Turkey, and the contradictory threat of sanctions by the United States reveals deep divisions in the UN security council on how to deal with nuclear proliferation and is a watershed in the configuration of a new multipolar world.

Barack Obama, Iran, and the nuclear danger

October 2009
The tensions over Iran's nuclear programme resemble the prelude to the Iraq war of 2003. But the new conditions of international politics could yet be turned to advantage in finding a solution.

Pressing issues for UN peacekeeping operations

September 2009
The resignation of the UN commander in chief in Congo this year is indicative of the rising number of problematic UN peacekeeping missions. For peacemaking in complex environments to have a chance of succeeding, members of the UN Security Council will need to transcend their own national security and economic interests.

Democracy-promotion: doctrine vs dialogue

July 2009
George W Bush made democracy-support a central theme of his presidency. Barack Obama, by contrast, has downplayed it. Yet the latter's approach may achieve more effective results.

Torture: America's policy, Europe's shame

June 2009
The degrading treatment meted out to prisoners of the United States-led "war on terror" over seven years has yet to be subject to proper legal scrutiny and accountability. But the responsibility is Europe's too, say Jan Egeland & Mariano Aguirre.

Barack Obama and Afghanistan: a closer look

April 2009
The United States’s shift of strategy towards “AfPak” needs to go further by taking account of regional concerns and local agencies.

Haiti: unravelling the knot

September 2008
Haiti's interlocking crises - from food-security to social violence, inequality to judicial corruption - make it one of the most challenging arenas in the world for establishing the right mix of international and domestic policies. Mariano Aguirre & Amélie Gauthier draw lessons from a research trip to suggest where the priorities should lie.