Publications
Utenrikspolitikk for et konkurransedyktig norsk næringsliv
Dette notatet er et sammendrag av RESPONS-prosjektets konferanse i Stavanger den 20. mars 2024. Vertskapet var Universitetet i Stavanger (UiS), i samarbeid med Næringsforeningen i Stavangerregionen, NHO Rogaland, Innovasjon Norge, Offshore Northern Seas (ONS), Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI) og Utenriksdepartementet.
Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Myanmar
Myanmar is home to one of the highest concentrations of people vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, with 40 per cent of the population residing in low-lying and coastal regions. Following a military takeover in 2021, the establishment of the State Administration Council (SAC) was met with broad popular resistance, retriggering confrontations with ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) and local antijunta militias. Conflict has exacerbated the country’s vulnerability to climate change and environmental degradation.
Arctic Climate Science: A Way Forward for Cooperation through the Arctic Council and Beyond
This brief is inspired and informed by a two-day workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts entitled “The Future of Arctic Council Innovation: Charting A Course for Working-Level Cooperation” hosted by the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School in collaboration with the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, the Center for Ocean Governance at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and the Polar Institute at the Wilson Center. Participants included diverse representatives from civil society, academia, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations, and governments with deep knowledge of and experience with both the Arctic Council and other regional governance mechanisms.
Caught in the liberal pragmatic trap? How political parties viewed energy dependence on Russia in three European countries 2012–2022
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and its subsequent decision to stop its gas export to Europe, Europe’s energy dependence on Russia was put on full display. In this paper, we map energy relations with Russia in three European countries that in the period of analysis between 2012 and 2022 were among the most important energy customers of Russia: Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. Moreover, we examine how this issue has been addressed – if at all – in party programs in elections in the same period. Examining party programs, we argue, brings new insights and a better understanding of how energy policies and relations with Russia were viewed in the three countries – and in the EU in general in that period. The paper identifies two ideal types – the ‘liberal pragmatists’, who treated strong energy interdependence as a possible conflict-mitigating measure, and the ‘hard core realists’, who viewed strong energy dependence on Russia as a possible source of strategic threat. The paper is written as part of the research project "Russian Policies of Influence in the Populist-Pragmatic Nexus" (PRORUSS), funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN).
Gendering Security Sector Reform through Capacity Building? The MINUSMA Specialized Police Team on Crime Scene Management
A key element of international peacebuilding efforts is support to reform of the security sector in conflict-affected states, for example through capacity building. From 2019 to 2022, a Norwegian-led police team provided capacity building in crime scene management to Malian security forces as part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The Norwegian officers organized courses and acted as mentors for the Malian officers. This article uses this case from MINUSMA to study how external support to reform can help promote gender perspectives in the security sector in conflict-affected countries. UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda call on UN member states to contribute to increasing women’s representation and the integration of gender perspectives in UN peace operations. Despite these political frameworks, the gender perspective is often ignored in practice when such support is offered. The analysis shows that the Norwegian officers worked actively to promote gender equality and women's participation, even though this was not a central part of the project, and without references to resolution 1325 or women or gender perspectives in the project document. Instead, the officers pointed to how promoting women's participation and gender equality are a part of “the way we work” (in Norway), as well as MINUSMA's mandate as the basis for this work. Feminist research distinguishes between a traditional and transformative approach to working with gender and security sector reform, where a traditional approach involves working within existing structures to, for example, increase women's participation or for women to receive the same type of training or capacity. A transformative approach, on the other hand, will involve taking a closer look at these structures, and looking at how women's roles in the security sector are affected by societal, cultural and religious norms. The article finds that the work has mainly relied on traditional understandings of gender, and that the opportunities for capacity building to contribute to deeper changes in the security sector are therefore limited. The findings thus further indicate that individual officers can do a lot to promote women's participation and gender perspectives, but deeper transformation of the security sector will probably require action at a more structural level.
All Quiet on the Northern Front? Russian Media Coverage of Russia-China Arctic Cooperation
This research paper explores the extent and focus of China’s engagement in the Russian Arctic from one key Russian official media outlet, Rossiiskaya gazeta, and highlights how the daily’s coverage provides further context for understanding Russia’s approach to China in the Arctic.
Reimagining NATO after Crimea: Defender of the rule-based order and truth?
Russia’s annexation of Crimea and war on Ukraine has led to upheaval in NATO’s discourse and practice. Taking a step back from the security debate, this article contends that the very process of responding to Russian aggression has led to the reimagining of NATO’s identity. While NATO tends to present change as continuity, this article’s mixed methods analysis illuminates how a trio of new and ambitious self-representations have risen to prominence within NATO’s post-Crimea discourse. NATO has anointed itself defender of the international rules-based order and purveyor of truth and facts amidst a world of disinformation, while pushing a resilience policy agenda that expands its authority into new domestic domains. Problematizing these shifts, the article warns that NATO’s new narrative ignores its own role in the problems it seeks to solve and thus risks undermining NATO efforts to rally global support for Ukraine.
Framtidig forsvar for Norge: Innspill til langtidsplan og forsvarskonsept
This NUPI Report is in Norwegian only.
The future is just another past
Before International Studies can confront the future, it needs to get a better grip on its past and present. The discipline lacks agreement on both its own name and the name of its object of study. More importantly, key concepts used to describe phenomena have changed continuously: no concept emerging in the 19th century has remained untouched, no envisioned future of the past could have prepared us for the present. Old concepts have been discarded, new ones adopted, and existing ones modified. This implies that any exercise in ‘futurology’ must necessarily come with an openness towards conceptual change, and that a key challenge for International Studies going forward will consist in matching our conceptual toolbox to an ever-changing world. The importance of conceptual change has until recently been neglected in the study of global politics. Thus, in this paper we start by presenting the empirical case for incorporating conceptual change by laying out key past and present conceptual changes in the international realm. We then move on to a presentation of conceptual history and the tools it provides us for grasping conceptual change, before discussing how to tackle conceptual developments when thinking about the future of global politics.
Mental health exemptions to criminal responsibility - between law, medicine, politics and security
Ill mental health is a key category for exempting individuals from criminal responsibility. Even in cases where a defendant has been found to have carried out the act, if mentally ‘ill enough’, the person could either be fully exempt from criminal responsibility and found not guilty – or be partially exempt and receive a reduced or special sentence on mental health grounds. Such outcomes might entail diversion into mental health treatment, sectioning – or release. In determining whether a mental health exemption is warranted in individual cases, ordinary practice is that psychologists or psychiatrists forensically assess the severity and nature of the accused’s impairment or disorder. While this might seem like a straightforward medical-juridical procedure of establishing evidence, this article uses a modified ‘genealogy of the present’ to show how mental health exemptions to criminal responsibility involve significantly more complexity. Looking to Norway and the UK, this article highlights differences in frameworks and implementation, including on matters of burden and nature of proof, and on causality. The article uses as an example the particular category of terrorism-related cases to bring out some of the contingencies involved. By doing so, the article shows the tensions inherent to the principle and practice of mental health exemptions, and its location between law, medicine, politics and security.