Kristine Helskog
Research
My current research focuses primarily on children and armed conflict, decision-making in insurgency, and human consequences of war.
I am specifically interested in how conflicts affect children's education and life opportunities, and why children are targeted in conflicts. My research experience has evolved around the causes and consequences of conflict, particularly concerning health, education, children's living conditions, child labor, ceasefires, and development aid.
Empirically, I investigate these questions using quantitative methods from data science. That includes working with tabular, geospatial, survey, and text data.
Publications
Helskog (2024) Effectiveness of aid on educational dropout in post-genocide Rwanda
International Journal of Educational Development
Conflict Management and Peace Science
Children affected by armed conflict 1990-2022
PRIO Policy Brief
More and more children at risk of conflict
PRIO Comment
Projects
Under review
Working papers
Armed group goals and structure: why some armed groups target education.
Single-authored PhD paper
From scarcity to signal. Synthetic Data Enables Scalable Detection of Rare Violence Events in Text
Paper presentation from ISA (Columbus, USA), March 2026
PRIO-GRID 3.0 and the Sensitivity of Spatial Conflict Analysis to Projection, Scale, and Time
Co-Authored with Jonas Vestby and Andreas Forø Tollefsen
Indoctrination and regime stability.
Co-Authored with Ina Lyftingsmo Kristiansen
Working during War: The Association between Child Labor and Armed Conflict in the Congo
Co-Authored with Gudrun Østby and Roos van der Haer
Peacekeeping Beyond Peace: The Impact of UN PKOs on Educational Attainment in Africa
Co-Authored with Gudrun Østby and Roos van der Haer
Poised to protect? New evidence on national policies and prevention of attacks on education
Co-Authored with Ragnhild Nordås, Yasmeen Hanon, and Gudrun Østby
Presentations and invited talks
European Political Science Society (EPSS) - Belfast, UK (June 2026)
Author and presenter
Children International Summer Villages (CISV) - Hadeland, Norway (November 2025)
Invited to talk about children and armed conflict at CISV annual fall meeting in a 90-minute lecture.
International Studies Association (ISA) - Chicago, USA (March 2025)
Author and presenter of two papers
PRIO Conflict Patterns Brownbag - Oslo, Norway (November 2024)
Author and presenter
RA papers
Østby & Haer (2025) Aid to Educate? The Impact of Foreign Aid on Local School Enrolment in Nigeria
Journal of International Development