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Researcher

Pernille Rieker

Research Professor
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Contactinfo and files

pernille.rieker@nupi.no
(+47) 917 29 804
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Summary

Pernille Rieker's research interests are European integration (EU) and European foreign and security policies. This includes the foreign and security policies of France and the Nordic countries. She has also worked with dialogue and conflict prevention more generally. Rieker obtained her PhD from the University of Oslo in 2004. At NUPI Rieker is part of the Security and Defence research group (SecDef). Furthermore, she is the coordinator of the NUPI Centre for European Studies (NCE) and co-editor of the journal Internasjonal Politikk.

Publications:

Books:  European Actorness in a Shifting Geopolitical Order. European Strategic Autonomy Through Differentiated Integration (Springer 2023);  French foreign policy in a changing world. Practicing grandeur (Palgrave 2017); External governance as security community building – the limits and potential of the European Neighbourhood Policy (Routledge 2016); Dialogue and Conflict resolution. Potential and limits (Routledge 2015); and Europeanization of National Security Identity. The EU and the changing security identities of the Nordic states (Routledge 2006).

Articles: Making Sense of the European Side of the Transatlantic Security Relations in Africa (Politics & Governance, 2022); 'Not so unique after all? Urgency and Norms in EU foreign and security policy' (Journal of European Integration, 2021); 'Differentiated integration and Europe's Global Role: A Conceptual Framework' (European Foreign Affairs Review, Special Issue, 2021); 'Differentiated Defence Integration Under French Leadership' (European Foreign Affairs Review, Special Issue, 2021); 'Plugging the capability-expectations gap: towards effective, comprehensive and conflict-sensitive EU crisis response?' (European Security nr. 1, 2019); 'EU-supported reforms in the EU neighbourhood as organized anarchies: the case of post-Maidan Ukraine' (Journal of European Integration nr. 4, 2018); 'Autonomy and Integration? Small-state responses to a changing European security landscape' (Global Affairs nr. 3, 2017); 'The EU, Russia and the potential for dialogue – Different readings of the crisis in Ukraine' (European Security nr. 3, 2016); and 'The EEA Grant. A source of Soft Power?' (Journal of European Integration nr. 4, 2015).

More information on her work is included in her CV. 

Current Research:

Pernille Rieker leads the RE-ENGAGE-project, which overarching ambition is to assist the EU in refining its foreign policy toolbox, including its enlargement and neighbourhood policies - to enhance the Union’s geopolitical leverage and provide better tools for democracy promotion in its neighbourhood.

Within the framework of Norway and the EU towards 2030 Rieker analyses the evolution of the EU as a security policy actor and the implications for Norway.

In JOINT, she works on how to understand the driving forces and mechanisms of the EU's foreign policy. 

As part of the ADHOCISM project, she analyses the role of France's military in Mali.

Expertise

  • Security policy
  • NATO
  • Regional integration
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • The Nordic countries
  • Conflict
  • The EU

Education:

2004 PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo

1998 Can. Polit. in Political Science, University of Oslo

Work experience:

2017- Research Professor, NUPI

2011-2017 Senior Researcher, NUPI

2009-2011 Senior adviser, NordForsk

1999-2009 PhD-candidate/Senior Researcher/Head of Departement, NUPI

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications

Not so unique after all? Urgency and norms in EU foreign and security policy

The EU Global Strategy puts ‘principled pragmatism’ at the core of EU foreign and security policy. This has also been promoted as away of closing the gap between talk and action. Still, the concept has been widely criticized and interpreted as away of making the Union’s ‘organized hypocrisy’ less glaring. By exploring key EU foreign and security policy strategies and policies implemented over the past decade, this article suggests that a certain pattern for when the EU acts normatively and when it acts strategically can be identified. While the overall ambition is still to promote a more normative policy, also when it comes at a considerable economic cost, there is a limit to how it is willing to go. Evidence suggests that when faced with a situation perceived as urgent, the EU becomes more prone to implement policies that are at odds with its own principles.

  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • The EU
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  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • The EU
Publications
Publications

Making Sense of the European Side of the Transatlantic Security Relations in Africa

This article aims to investigate the character of transatlantic security relations in Africa: How can it be characterized? Have they become weaker or stronger over the past decade? How can this development be explained? As NATO has not yet been heavily engaged on the African continent, it is prudent to study the relations between the EU and the US. Africa has been of concern to the EU (and its member states) for decades due to its geographical closeness and historic bonds. Since 2001, for both Europe and the US, Africa has become a region of increasing security concern due to the threat of international terrorism—for Europe, we can also add the migration concern. The European side of this relationship has also been largely dominated by France, making the transatlantic security cooperation in Africa essentially about French-American relations. As France has taken the lead regarding Europe’s security and defense engagement in Africa, increasingly with the support of other EU member states and associated non-members, this bilateral relationship is more than simply cooperation between two states. By applying a framework that understands EU security and defense policy as a process increasingly characterized as a differentiated and flexible integration under French leadership, the development of the Franco-US security relations in Africa must be understood as an expression of the transatlantic security relations in this region.

  • Security policy
  • NATO
  • The Middle East and North Africa
  • Africa
  • The EU
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  • Security policy
  • NATO
  • The Middle East and North Africa
  • Africa
  • The EU
Articles
News
Articles
News

PODCAST: The EU’s role in European security and defence

On the 21 of March 2022, the Council of the EU adopted a Strategic Compass, a roadmap for the EU to become a stronger security and defence actor. But what does this really mean, and does it change the EUs role as a security actor in any significant way?
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • The EU
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Publications
Publications
Report

European defence beyond institutional boundaries: Improved European defence through flexibility, differentiation and coordination

As a response to the changing geopolitical situation, initiatives aimed to strengthen European defence have been taken in NATO, in the EU, but also bi- and multilaterally between EU member states and associated non-members, such as Norway. This policy brief argues that all these processes must be taken into account when we want to measure the full security and defence capacity of Europe. Rather than a sign of fragmentation, they are preparing the ground for a new European defence architecture, characterised by a high degree of flexibility, which in the end may be better adapted to the current security context. To maximalise the effect of this differentiated defence architecture, however, a certain coordination between the different initiatives is needed. There is now a window of opportunity for such coordination, as two key processes are now running in parallel: the development of a new “strategic concept” for NATO and the development of a “Strategic Compass” in the EU. If this succeeds, we can hope for the development of a more flexible and capable European defence.

  • Defence and security
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
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  • Defence and security
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
Publications
Publications
Chapter

The potential and limits of EU crisis response

The aim of this chapter is to identify the potential and limits of the EU’s external crisis response. Rather than focusing on the character of the EU as a foreign policy actor, it concentrates on the EU toolbox or repertoire applied in EU missions and activities in various external crises and conflicts in the near and extended neighbourhood, and also how the Union’s activities are perceived by local stakeholders. A key question is whether there is a match or mismatch between EU intentions, the implementation, and the perceptions of local stakeholders. The analysis in this article draws on both a series of qualitative case studies and a quantitative analysis of a large number of EU documents and statements. This mixed method has enabled us to explore the EU’s crisis response repertoire systematically and from various angles.

  • Global governance
  • The EU
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  • Global governance
  • The EU
Research project
2022 (Completed)

Understanding and Strenthening EU Foreign & Security Policy in a Complex and Contested World (JOINT)

The JOINT project analyses these dynamics while addressing the question of how the EU and its member states can make their foreign and security policy structures more joined-up and sustainable....

  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Regional integration
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Governance
  • The EU
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Regional integration
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Governance
  • The EU
Forskningsprosjekt
2021 - 2025 (Ongoing)

Ad hoc crisis response and international organisations (ADHOCISM)

ADHOCISM asks what is the impact of ad hoc crisis responses on international organisations?...

  • Security policy
  • Africa
  • Peace operations
  • International organizations
  • The EU
  • United Nations
  • AU
  • Security policy
  • Africa
  • Peace operations
  • International organizations
  • The EU
  • United Nations
  • AU
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Differentiated Defence Integration Under French Leadership

Studies dealing with EU security and defence policy tend to focus exclusively on what is formally included in the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Other initiatives taken outside this framework are frequently seen potentially undermining the development of EU defence – even when the intention is to strengthen defence capacity. This has been the case with the various initiatives taken within or closely linked to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as the recent French approach involving the European Intervention Initiative (EI2). An alternative perspective is to see these as integrated parts of a more flexible and differentiated European security framework where all these initiatives combined contribute to strengthening European defence capacity. Building on the argument presented in the introduction to this Special Issue, this article argues that France, as a leader in promoting ‘l’Europe de la défense’, has been instrumental in promoting this differentiated approach to European defence integration, especially under the Macron presidency.

  • Defence and security
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • NATO
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
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  • Defence and security
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • NATO
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Differentiated Integration and Europe’s Global Role: A Conceptual Framework

In a time of global challenges, rising geopolitical tensions and a weakening of the traditional trans-Atlantic security community, we can expect pressures for Europe to play a more important role in the world. Various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the role of the European Union (EU), but there are also tendencies towards a more complex European governance structure in the making, characterized by a combination of both EU and non-EU (but still European) initiatives. This introductory article presents a framework for studying a European role that includes initiatives taken within and outside the EU framework, but closely interlinked, indicating that the concept of differentiated integration (DI) may help to clarify Europe’s role in a changing and volatile global context.

  • Defence and security
  • Security policy
  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
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  • Defence and security
  • Security policy
  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Regions
  • Europe
  • Global governance
  • The EU
Articles
Articles

Research group for Security and Defence

How can we best handle current and future wars and crises? What kind of threats are we likely to face in the years to come? Who are the future actors on the security policy arena? NUPI’s research on security and defence issues seeks to answer these questions.
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • NATO
  • Cyber
  • Intelligence
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