Publications
Gender, Parenthood and Feelings of Safety in Greek Refugee Centres
Forced migration and displacement are often associated with increased exposure to various risks that negatively affect personal safety. While experiences of displaced populations are heterogeneous, women have been shown to be exposed to intersecting factors, such as vulnerability to gender-based violence, restricting cultural norms and discrimination. Being a mother—or at least responsible for the care of a child—while en route stands as another marginalizing factor. This article’s point of departure is the so-called European ‘refugee crisis’ that peaked in 2015 and examines the effects of gender and family on the experience of safety among refugees in six refugee centres in Greece. We explore how intersecting issues such as gender roles and being responsible for children impact individuals’ feelings of safety. Using descriptive statistics and regression analyses of survey data on 367 migrants in six Greek refugee centres, we find that female migrants are more likely to feel unsafe compared to males. However, our results indicate that gender differences in feelings of safety are minimal for those without children. While having children affects both genders’ feeling of safety, the effect is much greater for women than for men. Our conclusion is that dissimilar experiences of safety along gender dimension are conditioned by norms and obligations inscribed in social roles of parents and care-givers.
Fighting Violence Against Women: Laws, Norms & Challenges Ahead
In the 1990s and 2000s, pressure from feminist movements and allies succeeded in pushing scores of states to reform their laws to prevent and punish violence against women (VAW). Even in states with progressive legislation, however, activists face challenges to induce citizens to comply with the law, compel state authorities to enforce the law, and ensure the adequate allocation of resources for social support services. In this essay, we take stock of legislative developments related to VAW around the world, with a focus on the variation in approaches toward intimate partner violence and sexual harassment. We analyze efforts to align behavior with progressive legislation, and end with a discussion of the balance activists must strike between fighting VAW aggressively with the carceral and social support dimensions of state power, while exercising some restraint to avoid the potentially counterproductive effects of state action.
A Norwegian perspective on Nordic-China Cooperation
This chapter addresses opportunities and challenges concerning Nordic-China cooperation, seen from Norwegian perspectives. With basis in the overall Norway-China relations, the chapter points to areas where joint activity is already quite dynamic and where many Norwegian actors welcome more Nordic-China cooperation. Academic and business promotion activities seem especially promising. However, the chapter is also very clear on the limitations of furthering the joint activity, not least in the political arena, where there is no interest in replacing activities that are currently national or bilateral in nature with something jointly Nordic.
Explaining Russian reactions to increased NATO military presence
Ever since NATO’s enlargement process began, Russia has voiced concerns for the impact of a greater NATO military presence near the Russian border for its national security. While the signing of the 1997 NATO–Russia Founding Act eased some tensions, Russia–NATO relations have had their ups and downs. Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 led NATO to adopt countermeasures aimed at improving the security of its members – such as the deployment of NATO troops to areas deemed for geographical reasons most exposed to potential Russian interventions. This Policy Brief examines Russian reactions to these new NATO deployments, placing them in the broader context of the Russian debate on NATO as a source of strategic concern. It starts with a discussion of the general strategic context, follows with examining the main lines in the Russian debate on NATO as a general security challenge, and continues with an examination of official views on a greater NATO military presence in areas close to Russian borders. It ends with some policy-relevant conclusions on striking a balance between NATO concerns for the security of its members and Russian views on what Moscow defines as national security concerns.
Om å være kvinne i akademia
Reflections on being a woman in academia. Published in longer version with Forskerforum, Agenda Magasin and Nupi.no.
Østasiatiske giganter i handelskrig
Why would Japan and South Korea risk large economic losses and weakening security relations in such a precarious time?
Drømmen om å gjenkristne Europa
The political leadership in Hungary, Poland and Russia talks of protecting Christians abroad - and about saving Europe from itself.
Generation Putin: Values, orientations and political participation
In spring 2017, many young Russians took to the streets of major cities like Moscow and St Petersburg in protest against the authorities. Since then, the generation that has grown up after the fall of the Soviet Union has captured the imagination of the general public, within the country and abroad. Researchers and journalists have been drawn to ‘Generation Putin,’ the generation that has grown up and come of age during Putin’s rule and now is gaining the right to vote and entering the political landscape. The Levada Center, an independent research organization based in Moscow, has conducted quantitative and qualitative sociological studies aimed at finding whether and how young Russians differ from the other generations. This paper presents the most significant differences according to data available from regular surveys and focus-group materials produced by the Levada Center.
Religious authority and the 2018 parliamentary elections in Iraq
This research brief analyzes the discursive production of, and political struggle over, religious authority in Shia Iraq. It examines Friday sermons held in the run-up to the May 2018 parliamentary elections.
‘Practice time!’ Doxic futures in security and defence diplomacy after Brexit
Time constitutes social life and time management is central to the everyday conduct of international politics. For some reason, however, the practice turn in International Relations (IR) has produced knowledge about how past practices constitute international politics but not about how the future is also a constitutive feature in and on social life. Introducing a novel perspective on practice and temporality, the article argues that intersubjectively situated representations of the future by practitioners in international politics contribute substantially to our understanding of political processes and the making of international politics. To develop what appears a contradiction in terms – that ‘future-practices’ are driven by tacit know-how and conscious reflection simultaneously – the article develops the concept of doxic futures: representations of the future rooted in practical knowledge and tacit assumptions about the self-evident nature of the social world. The argument is illustrated with a case study of European security and defence diplomacy after the UK voted to leave the EU. Through the envisioning of two concrete doxic futures, a ‘Europe of buying together’ and the UK as a third country in EU defence, diplomats effectively tried to save European security and defence cooperation from the potentially disintegrating effects of Brexit.