Bad ideas have wings too: Understanding the resilience of jihadi ideas
How has Sayyid Qutb’s book 'Milestones' inspired radical youth and armed JIhadi groups around the world?
Svein Efjestad
Svein Efjestad graduated from The University of Oslo in 1980 (Political Science, International Law and History). He held a scholarship at the Norw...
A quest to win the hearts and minds: Assessing the Effectiveness of the Multinational Joint Task Force
In January 2015, the African Union (AU) authorised the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) as a regional security arrangement of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) to deal with the threat of Boko Haram (BH) in the Lake Chad region. Its mandate includes the responsibility of ensuring a safe and secure environment in the areas affected by the BH insurgency, reducing violent attacks against civilians, facilitating stabilisation programmes in the Lake Chad region, facilitating humanitarian operations and the provision of assistance to affected populations. To achieve its mandate, the MNJTF undertakes both kinetic and non-kinetic operations. Its mandate has been renewed yearly since 2015, and in December 2022, the AU renewed its mandate for another 12 months. This report assesses the effectiveness of the MNJTF in delivering on its three mandate priorities to generate recommendations for the enhancement of the MNJTF´s overall effectiveness.
Innovative project strengthened Norway's foreign policy in the Security Council
Breakfast seminar: The war-time foreign policy debate in Russia and Europe
How has the Russian foreign policy debate changed, and how is it shaped by the European debate on Russia?
The war in Ukraine and multilateralism as we know it
Multilateralism was in trouble long before Russia invaded Ukraine: Increased rivalry between China and Russia, on the one hand, and the US and its allies, on the other, has made the most important international decision making body – the UN Security Council –less capable than before of addressing core issues on its agenda. For sure, the Council has renewed mandates for existing peace operations, but have not been able to establish new ones to address on-going conflicts. With the war in Ukraine and the seeming solidification of closer ties between Russia and China, there is reason to expect that multilateral decision making will deteriorate further.
COMMENTARY: Investing in People and Enhancing Resilience for Sustaining Peace with Adaptive Peacebuilding
Nye allierte, nye mulighetsrom: Norge og Finland i en endret sikkerhetspolitisk kontekst (NORFIN)
his project will study how Finland and Norway refer and relate to each other as security and defence policy allies, what opportunities they see for learning and exchange of experience going forward, a...
What Now, Russologists?
Russia’s war against Ukraine has enormous consequences. First and foremost for Ukraine, but also for Russia and its neighboring states. The war has not only changed European and Norwegian security and foreign policies, it will also have a significant impact on Norwegian research on and knowledge about Russia. The opportunities for doing research in Russia have become more limited in recent years. After February 2022, it has become impossible. At the same time, knowledge about Russia is important for Norway, which shares a border and administers critical resources in cooperation with Russia. This will continue to be the case. The question now is how this knowledge is to be created given that the framework conditions under which Norwegian research on Russia has been produced during the last 30 years have dramatically changed. How are we going to update Norwegian knowledge about Russia in the coming years? What methods and data are available, and what can we expect from these?
Africa in 2022
Dr Andrew E. Yaw Tchie shares his assessment on what have been the most significant issues shaping Africa in 2022.