South Sudan: A Political Economy Analysis
This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of South Sudan. A main argument is that its political economy is fundamentally atypical: achieving independence in 2011 and dissolving into renewed civil war in 2013, South Sudan is suffering the crisis of a weak, neo-patrimonial guerrilla government, with fragmented military-political systems that stretch across its extensive borderlands. This report locates the current crisis within a longer and deeper context, and explores the power dynamics and centrifugal destructive forces that drive patterns of extractive, violent governance. These forces underpin today’s economic and state collapse, civil war, famine, the flight of its people, and their local tactics of survival.
Transatlantic Troubles and the EU’s Pivot Toward Asia
The G20 Summit in Hamburg demonstrated that the geopolitical landscape is rapidly changing. The U.S. is no longer the only leader—it has to share the scene with China, Europe, and Russia, among others. In light of the changing landscape, the EU and China have begun to redefine their relationship. For years, Europe has sought to find the best way to adjust to the rise of China and growth in Asia. A key factor in the EU’s ties to China was always its relationship with the United States. However, President Donald Trump has brought new uncertainties to the transatlantic alliance. How will this affect the European “Pivot to Asia?”
EU Central Asia Strategy: Partnership for sustainable development
How can the EU contribute to a continued development in the right direction for Central Asia?
Ukrainian energy market in transition: How can it succeed in a new geopolitical setting?
NUPI and NUCC invites leading experts to share their views in recent changes in the Ukrainian energy market.
Digital Attacks against the Norwegian Petroleum Sector (DISP)
This project is mapping the threats and the historical usage of digital weapons against critical infrastructures, as well as examining the problems arising from unclear responsibilities in responding ...
Russia’s Return as True Europe, 1991–2017
Since the reign of Peter the Great, Russia has identified itself in opposition to Europe. In the late 1980s, Michael Gorbachev and associates forged a liberal representation of Europe and initiated a Western-oriented foreign policy. Against this westernizing or liberal representation of Europe stood what was at first a makeshift group of old Communists and right-wing nationalists, who put forward an alternative representation that began to congeal around the idea that the quintessentially Russian trait was to have a strong state. This article traces how this latter position consolidated into a full-fledged xenophobic nationalist representation of Europe, which marginalized first other forms of nationalism and then, particularly since 2013, liberal representations of Europe. The official Russian stance is now that Russia itself is True Europe, a conservative great power that guards Europe’s true Christian heritage against the False Europe of decadence and depravity to its west.
NEW BOOK: What does France want with its foreign policy?
Hear the podcast from the book launch of Senior Research Fellow Pernille Rieker's new book.
Estonia's president on security in the Baltic Sea region
Estonia plays an important role in Europe’s relationship to Russia. The president of Estonia visits NUPI to give some insight in the security challenges in the area.
Breakfast seminar: Japan’s Security and Foreign Policy Challenges on the Korean Peninsula
North Korea’s rapid progress in developing nuclear and missile programs has posed a grave security threat to the international community. Dr. Junya Nishino visits NUPI to discuss this threat from a Japanese point of view.
Facing new threats: The US cyber security strategy
Cyber security and cyber defense are areas that are increasingly receiving more attention, but there are still major challenges for how a country will manage to deal with such threats. Victor Piotrowski and Ralph F. Wachter comes to NUPI to share his experiences about US cyber security and the strategy the country uses.