Teheran. Revolusjon og reaksjon.
(Norwegian only): Temaet for kapitlet er Teherans rolle og betydning i et Midtøsten i endring og konflikt. Jeg ser byen som brennpunkt for tre store slag som står i regionen: kampene over Vestens rolle, folkets makt over politiske avgjørelser og islam som samfunnskontrakt. Jeg viser hvordan kampene spilles ut i Teheran, og hvordan de speiler Irans utfordringer som regional makt. Kapitlet drøfter forholdet mellom innen- og utenrikspolitikk og tar konflikten med Saudi-Arabia som eksempel.
Autocratic legitimation in Iran: Ali Khamenei's discourse on regime 'insiders' and 'outsiders'
The article analyses Ali Khamenei’s discourse on insiders and outsiders in the Islamic Republic of Iran, arguing that it shows the leader of an electoral revolutionary regime striving to counter elite fragmentation and growing democratic demands. It studies identity demarcation as a tool of autocratic legitimation. In a political system where the possibility to access political positions depends on supporting a belief-system, all cadres share a basic identity, which rulers can exploit to draw boundaries between “us” and “them”. The analysis reveals how Iran’s leader capitalizes on the existence of an insider-outsider divide to promote ideas about an imagined “we” of the regime. The “we” is portrayed as an Islamic we, fully committed to his rule. The article maintains that Khamenei developed this discourse in response to the challenge of the Iranian reform movement. It analyses, first, the context in which the discourse emerged and, second, the discursive strategy itself, to substantiate the claim. It concludes that the discourse had two essential aims in the containment (1997–2003) and crushing (2009–2010) of the pro-democracy reformist and Green movements: to de-legitimate Khamenei’s opponents through othering and to legitimate the counter-mobilization of repressive agents.
Vår fiende Russland?
(Available in Norwegian only): De siste fire årene har fiendebildet av Russland i mange land vokst seg svært sterkt, tidvis på unyansert grunnlag. Parallelt har regimet blitt vanskeligere å forsvare.
Breakfast seminar: Global disorder and distrust – Chinese reactions
How does China deal with global disorder and distrust, and what does China’s domestic politics mean for its international engagements?
PODCAST: Trump – symptom or cause?
‘The scary thing is that Donald Trump now thinks that he’s got the hang of this job’.
Book launch: Perspectives on international taxation and capital flight from Africa
- How does the international tax system affect domestic revenue systems in Africa? New book from TaxCapDev Network launched in Norway
How to understand and deal with Russian strategic communication in Europe?
What role does media play in Russian foreign policy?
Myanmar – challenges and opportunities
UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP representative in Myanmar, Knut Østby and researchers Roman Vakulchuk and Kristian Stokke will take a closer look at Myanmar, and the political and economic challenges the country is facing.
Nils Klim Prize awarded to NUPI researcher
"An outstanding political scientist and ideally suited as a role model for younger researchers." This is how the jury characterizes this year’s Nils Klim Prize laureate, Francesca R. Jensenius.
How to understand and deal with Russian strategic communication measures?
Russia’s use of communicative tools to promote the country’s strategic objectives in the aftermath of the 2014 crisis in Ukraine has posed a new strategic challenge to the Western policy-making community. NATO, the EU and national authorities have become increasingly aware of this new challenge, and have taken measures to reduce the negative impacts of Russian (dis)information campaigns.