Radicalization behind bars: Lessons and challenges from Norway and the Netherlands
How can correctional institutions and the wider society prevent radicalization behind bars?
Breakfast seminar: How does China view the world economy?
We hear a lot about the slowing of China’s economic growth and the trade war with USA. How do Chinese researchers view the situation and what does it mean for other countries and Norway?
Theory Seminar: “Traditional” institutions and polity-building in Chechnya and Ingushetia
Dr Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, will present her book project on the situation in North Caucasus.
Stater og transnasjonale motstandsnettverk: Irans mobilisering av irakiske sjiamilitser etter 1979
The Islamic Republic of Iran has been building a transnational network of Shi’a militias since 1979, commonly referred to as its asymmetric warfare capability and ‘strategic depth’. While it is a known fact that Iran has mobilised Shi’a militias in other countries to strengthen its regional position, how they have done it has not received much scholarly attention. The objective of this paper is to explain this phenomenon by examining how Iran has mobilised Iraqi Shi’a militias since 1979. The selected cases are the mobilisation processes of three most prominent Shi’a militias in Iraq today: Badr Organisation, Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, and Kata’ib Hizbullah. Although variation exists between them, they are all cases of Iran’s network of armed resistance groups, which have allowed it to engage in covert or indirect conflict intervention in the Middle East. To logically connect the empirical data with the study’s research question, I have used a case study research design, with process tracing and the semi-structured interview as methods for data collection. Furthermore, the empirical analysis has been guided by a theoretical framework that has attempted to build a bridge between the existing literatures on state-militia dynamics and contentious politics.
Expectations of Change: Development Partnerships in Faith-Based Forest Conservation in Ethiopia
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia, this paper explores how local faith communities, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), and international development organizations cooperate to define knowledge and practices of forest conservation. By following a church forest conservation-project in Ethiopia, in which both faith-based organizations, and the EOC are central stakeholders, this paper explores the intersections of local and international articulations of partnership and development. The church forests of Ethiopia represent some of the last enclaves of Highland and Afromontane forests types in the country, making them an important source of biodiversity. While increasing land cultivation and human settlement have reduced the scope of the forests, the EOC and its monastic communities have long been part of preserving the remaining green areas. As larger global forest conservation initiatives - such as the UN-REDD – emerge, local practices of conservation and development are now faced with the logics of professionalized development organizations. The forest conservation initiative in question aims to integrate theological reflections, technologies for agroforestry and biodiversity conservation, as well as livelihoods-projects. What happens when historically and theologically rooted practices of forest conservation meet the agendas of NGOs driven by narratives of innovation and sustainable development? And more generally, how can we understand how global and local commitments shape different stakeholders’ perceptions of “development” - and how do these connections impact their perceptions of each other as development partners?
The Zelensky phenomenon: From where did it come and where will it lead
Adrian Karatnycky will give a talk about Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian comedian-turned-president, and how his electoral triumph was possible.
The U.S. Cyber Strategy of Persistent Engagement
How does the U.S. Cyber Command wish to position itself in cyberspace?
Kreml og den liberale idéen
How radical is Kremlin's anti-liberalism?
Analyzing Frenemies: An Arctic repertoire of cooperation and rivalry
Intensive transnational cooperation and manifestations of the NATO-Russia security rivalry have endured for over 30 years in the post-Cold War Arctic. Drawing upon the concept of repertoires from the social movement literature, this article seeks to make a conceptual contribution as to how we might better analyse and articulate the simultaneity of these practices and narratives of cooperation and rivalry in the circumpolar region. Repertoires are typically defined as bundles of semi-structured/semi-improvisational practices making up a context-contingent performance (for example, by civil society towards the ‘state’). These repertoires are argued to be created and performed in ‘contentious episodes’, rather than structured by long-term trends or evidenced in single events. Translated to global politics, a repertoires-inspired approach holds promise for privileging an analysis of the tools and performance (and audience) of statecraft in ‘contentious episodes’ above considerations of how different forms of global order or geopolitical narratives structure options for state actors. The emphasis on the performance of statecraft in key episodes, in turn, allows us to consider whether the interplay between the practices of cooperation and rivalry is usefully understood as a collective repertoire of statecraft, as opposed to a messy output of disparate long-term trends ultimately directing actors in the region towards a more cooperative or more competitive form of Arctic regional order. The article opens with two key moments in Arctic politics – the breakup of the Soviet Union and the 2007 Arctic sea ice low. The strong scholarly baseline that these complex moments have garnered illustrates how scholars of Arctic regional politics are already employing an episodic perspective that can be usefully expanded upon and anchored with insights and methods loaned from social movement literature on repertoires. The 18-month period following Russia's annexation of Crimea is then examined in detail as a ‘contentious episode’ with an attending effort to operationalize a repertoires-inspired approach to global politics. The article concludes that a repertoire-inspired approach facilitates systematic consideration of the mixed practices of amity and enmity in circumpolar statecraft over time and comparison to other regions, as well as offers one promising answer to the growing interest in translating the insights of constructivist scholarship into foreign policy strategy.
NUPI experts on the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Abiy Ahmed for his efforts for peace and international cooperation, and especially for the initiative to solve the border conflict with Ethiopia’s neighbouring state Eritrea.