Europe after Brexit
What will the power balance in Europe look like after the UK leaves the EU next year?
Russian foreign policy as an instrument for domestic mobilization
Despite numerous declarations, the Russian authorities have done very little about domestic reforms, such as economic modernization. By contrast, Russia’s external policy has been extremely active, and is extensively debated within Russia itself. On the surface, it may seem that the domestic agenda is fully suppressed by the external one. In reality, however, foreign policy plays an important instrumental role, as the main tool for achieving domestic consensus and mobilization. It is public approval of the country’s foreign policy, together with ‘Russia-friendly’ interpretations of international processes, that create openings for the political elite to postpone domestic reforms. Various strategies for domestic reforms have recently been elaborated on the order of the President – but there are no indications that they will be realized anytime soon.
China: New Silk Road stir mixed reactions in Europe
Europeans are growing more wary of China, but still welcome many of its contributions.
The Philippines, ASEAN and climate change
What did the Philippines achieve in its chairmanship of ASEAN in 2017? And what challenges lie ahead for the ASEAN countries related to climate change?
What will Brexit mean for the Nordics?
The British government’s decision to withdraw from the European Union (EU) in 2016 marks a watershed in the history of European integration. What will Brexit mean for the Nordic countries?
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’.