Sjømatnæringen og Europa. EØS og alternativene
The book examines the importance of the EEA for the seafood sector and the consequences if the EEA is replaced by EU membership or another type of trade agreement: NOREXIT. This is analysed in areas of particular importance for the seafood industry, such as tariffs, veterinary and border control; migrant workers in the fish processing industry; catch quotas after Brexit; and cross-border investment. In addition, the book includes background chapters on the EEA agreement, the Norway-EU negotiation history and the legal aspect of the EEA. The book is the result of an inter-disciplinary project with emphasis on economics and political science. The contributions are written by key experts from Norwegian universities and research institutions. The book has no political agenda of replacing the EEA with one alternative or another; it is a peer-reviewed academic contribution to greater knowledge about the EEA and the alternatives.
Fra «fiskebrevet» til EØS: Betydningen av toll for norsk sjømateksport til EU
An “archeology of tariffs” reveals how current tariffs for Norwegian seafood are based on trade agreements negotiated with the EU over 50 years. Furthermore, the economic impact of tariffs and tariff rate quotas under the EEA, EU membership and abolition of the EEA is quantified. The trade agreements reduced tariffs from 2.3 to one billion NOK in 2018. 2/3 of the tariff savings were due to the EEA, and less than 1/10 due to the “fisheries letter” of 1973. Abolition of the EEA may lead to an export loss of up to more than three billion NOK for harvest-based fisheries, whereas EU membership will lead to increased exports, particularly for aquaculture.
The Dangers of Disconnection: Oscillations in Political Violence on Lake Chad
Narrations on fragility and resilience in the Sahel paint a picture about the region’s inherent ungovernability that lead to consider an endless state- and peace-building process as the most feasible governance solution. Everyday practices of violent entrepreneurship, coalescing with inter-community and land-tenure conflicts, now inform social relations and are transforming moral economies around Lake Chad. While competition over territory suitable for farming, grazing and fishing has intensified, dispute-settlement practices organised by community-level authorities have proven ineffective and lacking the necessary means to respond to the encroachment of a wide range of interests claimed by increasingly powerful actors. Meanwhile, communities organised in self-defence militias are undergoing a process of progressive militarisation that tends to normalise violence and legitimise extra-judicial vigilante justice, further empowering capital-endowed arms suppliers gravitating in the jihadi galaxy, such as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Book launch: EEA and the alternatives – what about NOREXIT?
What are the alternatives to the EEA Agreement? What happens if Norway joins the EU, or if the EEA is terminated? A new book edited by Arne Melchior and Frode Nilssen looks into this.
Naming and shaming of cyber intruders – does it work?
Last month Norwegian authorities made the rather unusual decision to call out - to attribute - Russia for being behind a cyber operation towards the Norwegian parliament. NUPI’s Cybersecurity Centre has the pleasure to invite to a webinar with Professor Madeline Carr. She will provide an overview of why attribution in cyberspace is difficult, the challenges of not being able to attribute - and different options on how to deal with this issue.
Missiles, Vessels and Active Defence What Potential Threat Do the Russian Armed Forces Represent?
In 2019, Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, presented a ‘strategy of active defence’, a possible prelude to the forthcoming Russian military doctrine. This article examines this strategy with particular emphasis on the role of precision-guided missiles, tactical nuclear weapons and the role of the navy. It provides insights on the shape of new Russian military doctrine and the military threat Russia might represent to the West. Maren Garberg Bredesen and Karsten Friis conclude that the active defence concept may imply a lowering of the use-of-force threshold. Russia’s continued build-up of tactical nuclear weapons integrated into the conventional forces reinforces this concern.
Spiraling toward a New Cold War in the North? The Effect of Mutual and Multifaceted Securitization
Building on a discourse-theoretical reading of securitization theory, this article theorizes and examines how two political entities can become locked in a negative spiral of identification that may lead to a violent confrontation. Through mutual and multifaceted securitization, each party increasingly construes the other as a threat to itself. When this representation spreads beyond the military domain to other dimensions (trade, culture, diplomacy), the other party is projected as “different” and “dangerous” at every encounter: positive mutual recognition is gradually blocked out. Military means then become the logical, legitimate way of relating: contact and collaboration in other issue-areas are precluded. Drawing on official statements 2014–2018, this article investigates how Norwegian–Russian relations shifted from being a collaborative partnership to one of enmity in the High North. The emerging and mutual pattern of representing the other as a threat across issue-areas since 2014 has become an “autonomous” driver of conflict—regardless of whether either party might originally have had offensive designs on the other.
Tax for Development Webinar Series Presenting the TaxCapDev-Network
Taxation is the key to state-building and the pathway out of fragility. An important theme forming the basis for the TaxCapDev-network.
The Nordic Balance Revisited: Differentiation and the Foreign Policy Repertoires of the Nordic States
Nordic governments frequently broadcast their ambition to do more together on the international stage. The five Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway) also share many basic goals as foreign policy actors, including a steadfast and vocal commitment to safeguarding the ‘rules-based international order.’ Why then, do we not see more organized Nordic foreign policy collaboration, for example in the form of a joint ‘grand strategy’ on core foreign policy issues, or in relation to great powers and international organizations? In this article, we draw on Charles Tilly’s concept of ‘repertoires’ to address the discrepancy between ambitions and developments in Nordic foreign policy cooperation, highlighting how the bundles of policy instruments—repertoires—that each Nordic state has developed over time take on an identity-defining quality. We argue that the Nordic states have invested in and become attached to their foreign policy differences, niches, and ‘brands.’ On the international scene, and especially when interacting with significant other states, they tend not only to stick to what they know how to do and are accustomed to doing but also to promote their national rather than their Nordic profile. While Nordic cooperation forms part of all the five states’ foreign policy repertoire in specific policy areas, these are marginal compared to the distinctive repertoires on which each Nordic state rely in relation to more powerful states. It is therefore unlikely that we will see a ‘common order’ among the Nordic states in the foreign policy domain in the near future.
Did British colonial rule in Africa foster a legacy of corruption among local elites?
The empowerment of chiefs during colonial rule fostered a legacy of corruption more potent than the formal legal system left behind by the colonisers.