Financial Plumbing for Big Beer
This policy brief departs from the idea of studying multinational corporations’ “global wealth chains” (Seabrooke and Wigan 2014a, 2014b). This can tell us how companies protect and create wealth by decentering their corporate forms in advantageous jurisdictions. The brief proposes a method for studying global wealth chains, despite the data limitations that constrain the field, and applies this method to Carlsberg A/S, which is a brewery operating across multiple jurisdictions.
The question behind the Panama leak
Why aren’t international rules stopping offshore tax evasion?
Read professor Leonard Seabrooke's views on the topic here.
Morocco, challenges in the region and its cooperation with the EU
In this seminar, Mohammed Tawfik Mouline, wil give a presentation on Morocco’s major achievements at the political, economic and social levels.
EU initiatives along the ‘cocaine routes’ to Europe: Fighting drug trafficking and terrorism by proxy?
While broad scholarly attention has been devoted to the securitization of migration in the ′EU’s relations with neighboring countries, less attention has been given to the ways in which the EU is partnering with third countries to fight other central ′‘unconventional security threats′’, such as terrorism and drug trafficking. This article traces the evolution of EU cooperation on these two issues with countries along the cocaine trafficking routes to Europe, i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean and West Africa. A mapping of EU initiatives and cooperation reveals that not only can a securitization of EU cooperation be observed in both regions, but various ′‘unconventional security threats′’, perceived in geopolitical terms, seem increasingly to serve as drivers for EU external action. The modalities of EU support – through international and regional organizations as well as third countries’ own counter-crime and counter-terrorism capabilities – suggest that the Union is fighting drug trafficking and terrorism ′‘by proxy′’. The article discusses whether the ′‘indirect′’ EU approach is a strategy of efficient engagement, or rather a way of avoiding commitment while portraying itself as a ′‘global crime fighter′’. Lastly, more analytical attention to third country interests, agency, and opposition is suggested in order for analyses to transcend the one-directional understanding of power seemingly underpinning the proxy concept.
The West – and the Rest in Multilateral Development Finance: New Actors, Changes and Challenges
This seminar will focus on the role and relevance of the new and established multilateral actors in a changing development landscape.
The European Union and Peacebuilding
The Rising Powers and Peacebuilding project seeks to address an important question that has not yet been thoroughly researched: what are the new approaches that rising powers have taken to peacebuilding, how do they differ from those of traditional powers and multilateral institutions, and what lessons can be learned from these new approaches?The policy briefs in this series provide a baseline on the roles of rising powers and their affiliated regional organizations in peacebuilding. To this point, little research has been conducted on the substance and impact of peacebuilding activities carried out by rising powers. This project seeks to address this gap in the research by providing a structured, critical analysis of the values, content and impact of recent peacebuilding initiatives of rising powers, comparing them to one another and to approaches by Western donors and international organizations. The project also aims to offer new theoretical claims about the role of the global South in peacebuilding, rooted in insightful empirical work (on Somalia, Afghanistan and Myanmar and on specific non-¬‐Western actors), and to make key policy audiences aware of alternative approaches and their empirical records and theoretical underpinnings (which may vary among values, global/regional power aspirations, bureaucratic approaches).The project partners will also produce case studies on the role of rising powers in peacebuilding, and include:ACCORD (an NGO based in South Africa), the Istanbul Policy Center (IPC), , the United Service Institution of India (USI), American University’s School of International Service (SIS), CSIS-¬‐Jakarta, and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). The project is funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, American University, and NUPI.
NUPI to lead project on TTIP
NUPI will, jointly with other research groups in Norway and abroad, analyze the consequences for Norway of a free trade agreement between the EU and the USA.
Chinese New Year
China-Europe Joint Ventures Come to the Forefront.
Read Senior Research Fellow at NUPI Marc Lanteigne’s op-ed on the topic here.
Nord Stream 2: policy dilemmas and the future of EU gas market
The Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipeline project is one of the most controversial issues in EU gas-related debates today. Its proponents hold that the project is driven by purely commercial considerations, while opponents label it as political and contradictory to EU goals and rules. The project has also contributed to raising several questions concerning the role of commercial actors in the shaping and realization of the EU energy policy as well as the impact on EU internal cohesion and relations with Ukraine and Russia. Realization of NS2 may boost the role of Russian gas in the European energy mix, especially in northwestern Europe; however, it could also undermine the credibility of the common EU energy policy, which aims, at least formally, at diversification of supply routes and suppliers as a joint and coordinated response to the energy-security challenges faced by the EU as a whole and by its member states. This Policy Brief sheds light on the current state of the debate on this project and examines the possible short-, mid- and long-term implications.