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Researcher

Elana Wilson Rowe

Research Professor
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ew@nupi.no
(+47) 450 04 240
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Summary

Dr Elana Wilson Rowe is research professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Wilson Rowe’s research and expertise areas include governance of nature and changing power relations in the Anthropocene, Arctic and ocean governance and geopolitics, and Russian climate and Arctic policymaking. Her publications explore how the interplay of diplomatic practices, security rivalries and expert/environmental knowledge shape outcomes and understandings in regional and global policy fields.

 She is the author of Russian Climate Politics: When Science Meets Policy (Palgrave, 2013) and Arctic Governance: Power in cross-border relations (University of Manchester, 2018). She was a member of Norway’s committee establishing research priorities for the UN Ocean Decade. She holds a BA in Russian and Geography from Middlebury College (USA) and an MPhil and PhD in Geography/Polar Studies from the University of Cambridge (2006). More publications and links can be found on Google Scholar.

Wilson Rowe is PI of and leads a 5- year major grant from the European Research Council (#80335, read more about the Lorax project here or on Twitter with #loraxprojectERC). The aim of this project is to understand the broader regional and global repercussions of governance efforts anchored in sub-global ‘ecosystems’ or ‘ecoregions’ (as identified by adjacent actors) and how the power relations enacted around ecosystems shape regional and global ordering. The project has some global review elements and focuses on three key cases: the Arctic, the Amazon and the Caspian Sea. Wilson Rowe has also led projects funded by the Norwegian Research Council, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Ministry of Defence.

Expertise

  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • Oceans
  • International organizations
  • United Nations

Education

2002-2006 D. Phil., human geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

2001-2002 M. Phil., human geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

1997-2001 B.A., Geography/Russian, Middlebury College, Vermont, USA

Work Experience

2006- Senior Research Fellow/Research Professor, NUPI

2006- Senior research fellow, NUPI 2010- Adjunct Professor at Nord University

2002-2006 Teaching Assistant/Supervisor, Geography Department, University of Cambridge

 

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications
Book

Arctic Governance: Power in cross-border cooperation

This book seeks to pose and explore a question that sheds light on the contested but largelyl cooperative nature of Arctic governance in the post Cold-War period: how does power matter - and how has it mattered - in shaping cross-border cooperation and diplomacy in the Arctic? Each chapter functions as a window through which power relations in the Arctic are explored. Issues include how representing the Arctic region matters for securing preffered outcomes, how circumpolar cooperation is marked by regional hierarchies and how Arctic governance has become a global social site in its own right, replete with disciplining norms for steering diplomatic behaviour. This book draws upon Russia's role in the Arctic Council as an extended case study and examines how Arctic cross-border governance can be understood as a site of competition over the exercise of authority. The book was launched at the Stimson Center in Washington DC on 12 September 2018. Watch the launch seminar, Russia and Arctic Governance: Cooperation in Conflict, here: https://youtu.be/bQ0iKwUbims

  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • North America
  • The Arctic
  • Oceans
  • Governance
  • International organizations
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • North America
  • The Arctic
  • Oceans
  • Governance
  • International organizations
Panel
2018 - 2021 (Completed)

The International Panel on Arctic Environmental Responsibility

The International Panel on Arctic Environmental Responsibility is an independent and free-standing body tasked with assessing the environmental status of oil, gas, and mining companies in the Arctic....

  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • Energy
  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • Energy
Bildet viser medlemmer av Free Syrian Army på patrulje.
Research Project
2018 - 2023 (Completed)

The Market for Anarchy

The Market for Anarchy project seeks to better understand how state behaviour is shaped by assessments of and responses to different types of risks....

  • Security policy
  • International economics
  • Conflict
  • Climate
  • Governance
  • International organizations
  • Security policy
  • International economics
  • Conflict
  • Climate
  • Governance
  • International organizations
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Trump, Putin and rejected greatness

Why do Putin and Trump undermine the international consensus knowledge that their national academic and governmental milieus have been so central to building?

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • North America
  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • Governance
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • North America
  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • Governance
Publications
Publications
Chapter

Gateway or Garrison? Border regions in times of geopolitical crisis

Russia's border regions have had moments as open 'gateways' to cooperation. More often, however, the border has been viewed as a 'garrison': an outpost of state power. This chapter places the Russian Far East in the broader context of Russia's pursuit of economic development and security concerns, noting that Russian foreign policy is not necessarily uniform: there are elements of compartmentalization/disaggregation along geographical vectors. The chapter broaches the question that informs all case studies in this volume: has Russia intensified its diplomatic and economic outreach to its eastern border areas and beyond because of the recent breakdown in relations with the West—or would such a shift have taken place anyway, given the economic pull of the Asia-Pacific region?

Publications
Publications
Chapter

Afterword: 6400 kilometers away - but not a policy world apart

The Afterword presents two key findings from this volume. First, while numerous new strategy documents and instruments have been adopted in recent years, contributing authors voice concern about the steps Moscow has taken to translate lofty ideas into practical policies. Second, the key initiatives were formulated well before the current crisis in Russia's relations with the West. While a certain rebalancing of the Western and Eastern vectors is taking place, there is still a long way to go before Russia's 'window to the East' can match its 'window to the West'. Only long-term commitment on the part of Moscow can transform the Russian Far East from a neglected periphery and military outpost into a viable gateway to the Asia-Pacific.

  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • Conflict
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • Conflict
Publications
Publications
Book

Russia's Turn to the East - Domestic Policymaking and Regional Cooperation

This book is open access under a CC BY license. This book explores if and how Russian policies towards the Far East region of the country – and East Asia more broadly – have changed since the onset of the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Following the 2014 annexation and the subsequent enactment of a sanctions regime against the country, the Kremlin has emphasized the eastern vector in its external relations. But to what extent has Russia’s 'pivot to the East' intensified or changed in nature – domestically and internationally – since the onset of the current crisis in relations with the West? Rather than taking the declared 'pivot' as a fact and exploring the consequences of it, the contributors to this volume explore whether a pivot has indeed happened or if what we see today is the continuation of longer-duration trends, concerns and ambitions.

  • Europe
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Russia and Eurasia
  • Asia
Event
16:00 - 17:30
NUPI
Engelsk
Event
16:00 - 17:30
NUPI
Engelsk
31. Jan 2018
Event
16:00 - 17:30
NUPI
Engelsk

Theory seminar: Science, technology, and ideas of expansive territorial sovereignty in Western international relations

Justiina Dahl visits NUPI to talk about what failed attempts to settle the Arctic can tell us about norm development in the international system

Publications
Publications
Chapter

Imagining the future: local perceptions of Arctic extractive industry projects that didn't happen

Climate change and globalisation are opening up the Arctic for exploitation by the world – or so we are told. But what about the views, interests, and needs of the peoples who live in the region? What about the myriad of other factors affecting the Arctic and its peoples? This book explores opportunities and limitations in engaging with the Arctic under change, and the Arctic peoples experiencing the change, through the lens of understanding Arcticness: what the Arctic means to Arctic peoples socially and physically. The chapters bring together a variety of disciplines, such as law, politics, geography and the arts, to examine what Arctic peoples could learn from and teach elsewhere, across disciplines and across locations. The authors reflect on philosophies of change in tandem with philosophies of the Arctic, particularly as represented by everyday experiences, memories and geographical imaginations.

  • The Arctic
  • Climate
  • The Arctic
  • Climate
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Commentary: Neighbors in a changed terrain

The Norwegian Government released a new strategy document for the High North at the end of April 2017. This short opinion piece examines some of the key areas of consistency and change in the international aspects of the strategy.

  • Foreign policy
  • The Arctic
  • Foreign policy
  • The Arctic
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