The Faiths for Forests Declaration and Action Agenda: Introduction and context
An introduction and contextualization of the newly launched Faiths for Forests Declaration, outlining current faith-based initiatives for environmental protection and conservation.
Theory Seminar: Global History and International Relations
Dr George Lawson from the London School of Economics and Political Science will present a paper on ‘Global History and International Relations’.
Expectations of Change: Development Partnerships in Faith-Based Forest Conservation in Ethiopia
Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Ethiopia, this paper explores how local faith communities, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church (EOC), and international development organizations cooperate to define knowledge and practices of forest conservation. By following a church forest conservation-project in Ethiopia, in which both faith-based organizations, and the EOC are central stakeholders, this paper explores the intersections of local and international articulations of partnership and development. The church forests of Ethiopia represent some of the last enclaves of Highland and Afromontane forests types in the country, making them an important source of biodiversity. While increasing land cultivation and human settlement have reduced the scope of the forests, the EOC and its monastic communities have long been part of preserving the remaining green areas. As larger global forest conservation initiatives - such as the UN-REDD – emerge, local practices of conservation and development are now faced with the logics of professionalized development organizations. The forest conservation initiative in question aims to integrate theological reflections, technologies for agroforestry and biodiversity conservation, as well as livelihoods-projects. What happens when historically and theologically rooted practices of forest conservation meet the agendas of NGOs driven by narratives of innovation and sustainable development? And more generally, how can we understand how global and local commitments shape different stakeholders’ perceptions of “development” - and how do these connections impact their perceptions of each other as development partners?
The Zelensky phenomenon: From where did it come and where will it lead
Adrian Karatnycky will give a talk about Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian comedian-turned-president, and how his electoral triumph was possible.
Analyzing Frenemies: An Arctic repertoire of cooperation and rivalry
Intensive transnational cooperation and manifestations of the NATO-Russia security rivalry have endured for over 30 years in the post-Cold War Arctic. Drawing upon the concept of repertoires from the social movement literature, this article seeks to make a conceptual contribution as to how we might better analyse and articulate the simultaneity of these practices and narratives of cooperation and rivalry in the circumpolar region. Repertoires are typically defined as bundles of semi-structured/semi-improvisational practices making up a context-contingent performance (for example, by civil society towards the ‘state’). These repertoires are argued to be created and performed in ‘contentious episodes’, rather than structured by long-term trends or evidenced in single events. Translated to global politics, a repertoires-inspired approach holds promise for privileging an analysis of the tools and performance (and audience) of statecraft in ‘contentious episodes’ above considerations of how different forms of global order or geopolitical narratives structure options for state actors. The emphasis on the performance of statecraft in key episodes, in turn, allows us to consider whether the interplay between the practices of cooperation and rivalry is usefully understood as a collective repertoire of statecraft, as opposed to a messy output of disparate long-term trends ultimately directing actors in the region towards a more cooperative or more competitive form of Arctic regional order. The article opens with two key moments in Arctic politics – the breakup of the Soviet Union and the 2007 Arctic sea ice low. The strong scholarly baseline that these complex moments have garnered illustrates how scholars of Arctic regional politics are already employing an episodic perspective that can be usefully expanded upon and anchored with insights and methods loaned from social movement literature on repertoires. The 18-month period following Russia's annexation of Crimea is then examined in detail as a ‘contentious episode’ with an attending effort to operationalize a repertoires-inspired approach to global politics. The article concludes that a repertoire-inspired approach facilitates systematic consideration of the mixed practices of amity and enmity in circumpolar statecraft over time and comparison to other regions, as well as offers one promising answer to the growing interest in translating the insights of constructivist scholarship into foreign policy strategy.
NUPI experts on the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Abiy Ahmed for his efforts for peace and international cooperation, and especially for the initiative to solve the border conflict with Ethiopia’s neighbouring state Eritrea.
Ukraine's energy transition in a new political landscape
The presidential and parliamentary elections earlier this year resulted in a massive shift of power in Ukrainian politics. How is this affecting the energy sector in Ukraine?
Russia and the European Human Rights System
There is a change in Russia's approach to the European Convention on Human Rights. What are the prospects for Russian participation in this system?
International Development Assistance. Policy Drivers and Performance
This book provides a comprehensive search for the basic political drivers of international development cooperation, based on the policy and performance of the OECD countries from the early 1960s to the present. The author focuses on the stated and implemented policies of the so-called frontrunners and the Western hegemon, scrutinizing the changing trends in the justifications, objectives and guidelines set for the policy and their evolving performance vis-à-vis the stated policy and the international ODA target. Yhrough extensive research, the work examines predominant world-views, societal value systems and foreign policy traditions in order to find the policy drivers that vary nation to nation and how development assistance has evolved globally.