New CADGAT Data Reviews on 261 Belt and Road (BRI) Projects in Central Asia
One of the main observations from the research is that nobody really knows what a BRI project is and what it is not.
Norsk utenrikspolitikk i en varmere verden
Despite the fact that political leaders describe the climate crisis as the biggest challenge of our time, it plays only a marginal role in Norwegian foreign policy. We analyse how the transition to renewable energy, increased migration flows, reputational risks to Norway and challenges to international organisations such as the UN, EU and NATO will change the conditions for Norwegian foreign policy. We describe how three different climate scenarios – quick transition (A), slow transition (B), and no transition (C) – will affect Norwegian foreign policy. We show that the scope and efficacy of Norwegian foreign policy will be constrained in all three scenarios and conclude that the overall priority for Norwegian foreign policy should be to prevent dramatic climate change, as it undermines Norwegian welfare and security. We conclude by discussing the implications for foreign policy strategy, stressing the need for close integration with the EU, and for stronger cooperation with China.
Introduction: Making Liberal Internationalism Great Again
At a time when liberal internationalism and institutions of multilateral cooperation arebeing dealt almost daily blows, this special issue revisits the notion and practice ofmiddle power liberal internationalism. The introduction suggests that while liberal inter-nationalism is far from dead, the challenges are serious and multiple. Reflecting on theseven essays contained in the volume, it argues that the biggest challenge for a futureliberal internationalism is not to double-down on its normative virtues, but critically toreflect on how it can be retooled to respond to new challenges.
"Contracting development: managerialism and consultants in intergovernmental organizations"
Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) are now managed with an eye to managerial trends associated with transnational professionals, a view that has ramifications for how IGOs govern their policies and processes. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with staff in IGOs, we trace how managerialism in IGOs is changing how staff perceive work practices. We find that IGOs increasingly rely on consultants to enact policy scripts and to evaluate program success. This signals a subtle yet significant shift from expertise and bureaucratic impartiality, grounded in particular types of knowledge, to skills and flexibility to meet client demands and advance best practice norms according to prevailing world cultural frames. This managerial trend in IGOs is partly driven by stakeholder dynamics but is primarily a normative change in who is seen as having the authority to make claims over professional best practices. Such managerialism is contracting the development policy space. This contraction is partly driven by consultants, who defer to their peers and to donors rather than IGO staff and concerned member states. This work also depletes institutional memory for IGO operations. We trace how IGO staff perceive managerial trends and changes in work practices.
The Politics of Diasporas and the Duty of Care: Legitimizing interventions through the protection of kin
The duty of care (DoC) is largely portrayed as being of a benevolent and liberal character, with welfare states aiding its citizens abroad. In this chapter Holm examines a more complex phenomenon involving the DoC: that of a state and its diaspora. Seeing Duty of Care in relation to diasporas poses a conceptual shift: often multinational in identification, with a perceived or real ‘homeland’, and at times with dual (legal) citizenship, diasporas may be sought protected under an extended, non-territorialized notion of belonging to a state’s citizenry. Looking at Russian rhetoric in the Georgia war in 2008 and the Crimean annexation and Ukraine crisis in 2014, Holm explores how the Duty of Care can be evoked rhetorically to defend diaspora groups by kin-states. In relation to a domestic audience, this prism proves highly effective, as the state portrays its actions as defending ‘their’ people abroad out of a moral necessity and responsibility for their kin. It also functions to dismiss international stigma and critique at home based on a perceived higher moral purpose. As in the case of diasporas in inter-state conflicts with Georgia and Ukraine, this turns the Duty of Care into a complicated, and potentially highly politicized, international matter. It also provides a communitarian alternative to the cosmopolitan R2P: in theory, any group can be defined as worth defending as one’s own, across and despite opposing claims to sovereignty. The chapter concludes with discussing the wider ramifications of diaspora group protection by kin-states for challenges to the liberal international order.
Ethnic Diversity in the Recruitment of Diplomats: Why MFAs Take the Issue Seriously
Diversity and its management have become an issue in all organisations. Ministries of foreign affairs (MFAs) do not escape the issue. In the 2000s, states decided to consider more ethnic diversity in the recruitment of their diplomats. In some countries, this new goal requires affirmative action programs. This article is based on three case studies. The first case study analyses two Western countries — France and Norway — where MFAs have to reflect the diversity of immigration in their societies. The second case study analyses the case of Brazil, a country where the legacy of slavery still causes discrimination in the recruitment of diplomats. The third case study analyses ethnic diversity in the MFAs of India and Singapore, which recognise multiculturalism or multiracialism. The study draws five comparative conclusions to generalise on why MFAs in the world cannot escape the challenge of ethnic diversity in their recruitment policy.
NUPI researcher Nina Græger to head the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen
‘I think both NUPI and the Department of Political Science have something to learn from each other,’ says Senior Research Fellow Nina Græger, who is heading to Copenhagen in mid-September.
Stubbornly Stumbling into Making History: Constructivism and Historical International Relations
The aim of this chapter is threefold; first we try to recollect through the hazy dim of personal history and histories how we eventually became the researchers we are today. Second, we focus on what to us at the time – and, to some extent, still – appeared as contingent, random and haphazard experiences so as to present a more coherent account, an account that we hope may be a useful tool – or at the least a good read – for younger scholars. In the process, we dwell on choices we have made with respect to how we have sought to approach the world; our approach and our sources. Third, we present an attempt at distilling what we see as the lessons that can be drawn from our work and trajectory, what we in hindsight may call “our approach”, in the hope that the reader will find some useful tools for her own research, or that we at the very least help open up a space for this type of reflection. We elaborate on what we perceive to be the benefits of our preferred approach, and how it may be useful for engaging with scholars beyond the confines of Constructivism.
Pathways that Changed Myanmar
Matthew Mullen’s book provides an impressively detailed and systematic account of how ordinary citizens in Myanmar pursued various pathways to bring about change in a conflict-prone country that was experiencing deep economic stagnation and where polarization in society had been maintained by military rulers for decades. In many ways, the book provides solid ground from which we can understand the recent history of the country’s transformation.
Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås
Hildegunn Kyvik Nordås was a Research Professor (part time) at NUPI until the summer of 2024. She worked on trade and trade policy issues, focusin...