Morten Skumsrud Andersen

Summary

Morten S. Andersen is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Research group on Global order and Diplomacy. In addition to a focus on theoretical and methodological aspects of International Relations, his research concerns how relations of power and dominance between states have evolved and been legitimated over time. In this, he focuses particularly on hierarchy and empires and on international conceptual history.

Andersen is currently taking part in the project A Conceptual History of International Relations (CHOIR). He is also applying these research topics to an analysis of Colombian foreign policy and global order for the projects Undermining Hegemony and Evaluating Power Political Repertoires (EPOS), and to foreign acquisitions and investments for the project Consequences of Investments for National Security (COINS).

In 2016, Andersen earned his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The dissertation is entitled “A Genealogy of the Balance of Power” and is a history of how this concept starts off as a way of preserving a supposed European commonwealth, but then becomes a notion that makes possible the denial of the existence of any such thing as “international society” in favour of a state-centric vision of international affairs. He here shows how that confusing origin and subsequent history defines the parameters of contemporary debates about “the balance of power” in International Relations.