Researcher
Øyvind Svendsen
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Øyvind Svendsen is Senior Research Fellow in the Research group on global order and diplomacy at NUPI. The core themes in his research are foreign policy, diplomacy, and security and defence policy. Svendsen primarily studies these questions in a European context. His PhD is from the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen (2020).
Øyvind is Editor of the journal Cooperation and Conflict, 2023-2027.
Recent publications:
Theorizing Public Performances for International Negotiations. International Studies Quarterly 66(3): 1-12 (2022).
The Politics of Third Countries in EU Security and Defence: Norway, Brexit and Beyond. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2022).
The Politics of Competence in Global Health: The European Commission’s Global Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. European Foreign Affairs Review 26(SI): 15-29 (2021).
‘Practice time!’ Doxic futures in security and defence diplomacy after Brexit. Review of International Studies 46(1): 3-19 (2020).
Spin-off av EØS? Norge og europeisk utenriks-, sikkerhets- og forsvarssamarbeid. Internasjonal Politikk 77(4): 378-387 (2019). (med Pernille Rieker)
Differentiated (Dis)integration in Practice: The Diplomacy of Brexit and the Low Politics of High Politics. Journal of Common Market Studies 57(6): 1419-1430 (2019). (med Rebecca Adler Nissen)
Brexit and the Future of European Defence: Towards a Practice Approach to Differentiated Defence Integration. Journal of European Integration 41(8): 993-1007 (2019).
Expertise
Education
2020 PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen
2015 MSc International Relations Theory, London School of Economics
2014 BA International Studies and History, Lillehammer University College
Work Experience
2021- Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
2016-2020 Ph.d. candidate, University of Copenhagen
2015-2016 Lecturer, Lillehammer University College
2010-2011 Grenadier, the Royal Norwegian Air Force
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filtersGerman-Norwegian Maritime Security Cooperation is strengthened
The Maritime Zeitenwende: Germany in the Northern Waters
In this report the authors study recent developments in German maritime defence policy and practice with a particular view on German-Norwegian relations. These relations are crucial, as the current security landscape challenges old geographical domains, particularly a stark division between operations in the Baltic Sea and North Sea. These areas are now being re-defined in and through military activity and technological advancements to address the security situation – including the increasing importance of protecting critical infrastructure – which will further contribute to policy development in the short and longer term.
How are these two supposed to cooperate?
They don’t have much in common, Donald Trump and Keir Starmer. But does that mean we are about to see a British showdown with the United States? In this op-ed in Dagsavisen, NUPI researchers Øyvind Svendsen and Paul Beaumont raise this question. At first glance, the two leaders appear to be diametrical opposites. On one side, the somewhat rigid social democrat and human rights lawyer Starmer; on the other, the ruthless rule-breaker Trump. Can they cooperate at all? Must the British now break away from their special relationship with their American guiding star?
In the Blind Spot of the Norwegian EU Debate: EU Health Preparedness After COVID-19
This article challenges the Norwegian EU debate by focusing on an overlooked but increasingly important policy area for European cooperation, namely health policy and more specifically health preparedness. The EU has started major processes related to health preparedness in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Norway takes part in some of these processes through the EEA agreement but is also currently excluded from important areas. This article serves two purposes: it maps ongoing EU development in health preparedness and assesses the extent to which this area should occupy more space in the Norwegian EU debate, including the sustainability of the current status quo. The article further identifies two specific areas that are central to Norway in relation to health preparedness. The first concerns the development of the EU’s Health Union and Norway’s political work to ensure formal access to all the initiatives that have recently been developed in the EU. The other concerns the effects that the EU’s intensified work on health preparedness has for the Norwegian health industry. The article concludes that Norwegian vulnerabilities are particularly linked to Norway’s political role as an EU outsider, but that these vulnerabilities must be considered in the context of any contribution the Norwegian health industry can make in the European health market if Norway becomes more closely connected to the Health Union.
Becoming allies: Finland and Norway after Russia's invasion of Ukraine
This article analyses Finland and Norway’s evolving narratives about one another as neighbours, partners, and allies against the backdrop of political and scholarly discourses about the broader Nordic security community. Drawing on International Relations (IR) theories on regional security complexes and security community formation, we find that a swift reframing of the Finnish-Norwegian relationship was possible after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 because it was formulated against the backdrop of the already established narrative about the well-functioning and trustful Nordic security community. The intense interaction dynamics between Finland and Norway in recent years have brought the Nordic security community to an unprecedented level of integration, and an all-time high sense of ‘we-ness’ now characterises Finnish-Norwegian relations.
Respons - Norsk utenrikspolitikk for en ny tid. Sluttrapport
I 2023 og 2024 arrangerte UD, i samarbeid med lokale aktører, til sammen sju konferanser i RESPONS-serien. Åpningskonferansen fant sted i Oslo i mars 2023, med NUPI som arrangør. Deretter fulgte et møte med NATOs generalsekretær, også i Oslo, og arrangementer i Arendal, Lillehammer, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger og Tromsø. Den tematiske innretningen på arrangementene har variert fra det brede til det smale, fra sikkerhetspolitikk og utvikling, via teknologi til handelspolitikk og grønn omstilling. En rekke fagfolk fra hele landet og fra ulike profesjoner og fagdisipliner, har innledet og deltatt i paneler. Utenriksministrene Anniken Huitfeldt (2022-2023) og Espen Barth Eide (2023-) har deltatt på alle arrangementene med unntak av ett – under Arendalsuka – hvor utviklingsminister Anne Beathe Tvinnereim (2021-) representerte departementet. NUPI har rapportert fra alle sju konferanser. Dette er i tillegg seriens sluttrapport, der de foregående delrapportene er inkludert.
From the incoming editors: A leading International Relations journal with a Nordic touch
The new editors of Cooperation and Conflict introduce themselves and their aims for the journal going forward.
Verden er farligere, men bryr nordmenn seg?
En fersk NUPI-undersøkelse viser at 77 prosent av befolkningen er positive til at Norge skal støtte Ukraina i krigen mot Russland. Men i aldersgru...
Norwegian public’s attitudes to foreign policy in 2024: a status quo nation in a time of global turmoil
What is the Norwegian public’s opinion on the state of the world? And what foreign policy does it want the Norwegian government to pursue? In this report, we present the findings from an opinion poll conducted by Sentio for NUPI in the period 18 to 24 April 2024. The global landscape is deeply unsettled, and we find ourselves in an era marked by considerable uncertainty about future developments in world politics. The great power rivalry between the United States and China is intensifying, the war in Ukraine continues to rage, the war in Gaza is causing immense human suffering and having major ramifications for the Middle East, and the effects of global warming are becoming increasingly apparent. The Norwegian government has warned through, for example, its intelligence service’s annual report on security threats, that Norway is facing its most serious security situation in decades.1 However, a key finding in our report is that the Norwegian public is somewhat measured in its assessments and considers the general threat level for Norway to be moderate, i.e. at a normal level. This suggests that the government’s actions have minimal impact on public opinion on world politics. The public’s failure to grasp the severity of the security situation is both surprising and alarming, as is its disregard for official communications about the geopolitical threats facing Norway. Against the backdrop of limited crisis comprehension, we see a relatively stable development in the Norwegian public’s attitudes to foreign policy since 2021, with the notable exception of attitudes to Russia, which have clearly hardened. NUPI conducted similar studies in 2020 and in connection with the general election in 2021,2 and in this report, we have asked many of the same questions as previously, in addition to some new ones. We therefore take this opportunity to compare our findings with the previous studies where appropriate, to gauge the extent of change in public opinion. This report and the survey it presents is financed by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung.