Diplomacy and foreign policy

Dragon in the North: The Nordic Countries’ Relations with China

This report is temporarily embargoed due to a publication process. In this focus report we present to a Nordic public an overview of each Nordic country’s bilateral relations with China, and how each has handled the challenges and opportunities arising in relations with Beijing. Gathering a team of Nordic researchers, each writing on one Nordic country, this report also asks whether there is a common ‘Nordic dimension’ to the policies undertaken towards Beijing. The Nordic countries share a common geography and history, as well as a set of common traits based upon political traditions and cultural affinities. Yet, they also differ from one another in many respects, including foreign policy outlook and international institutional affiliations. To some extent this can also be traced in the Nordic countries’ current relations with Beijing. As the contributions presented here show, the five Sino Nordic relationships have followed markedly different trajectories.

Brexit - hva nå?

Rethinking the Humanitarian-Development Nexus

In this policy brief, the author outlines the first steps taken in the rethinking of the humanitarian-development nexus. The next Secretary-General would be advised to continue on the same path in order to make sure that the recent commitments made by member states and expressed in various documents are realised. The author sums up five areas the next Secretary-General should prioritize. This policy brief is to a large extent based on the seminar titled Rethinking the humanitarian-development nexus, which was held at NUPI on 15 March 2016. The seminar was co-organised by NUPI, the Norwegian Centre for Humanitarian Studies and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as part of the UN 70: A new Agenda project.

A conceptual history of diplomacy

Scholars of diplomacy have identified diplomatic practices across the human experience, spanning the globe and going back before recorded history. Even so, the actual term ‘diplomacy’ did not enter into usage until the last decade of the 18th century. Does this discrepancy matter, and if so, what can it tell us? These are the underlying questions of this chapter. Drawing on a relatively modest secondary literature, as well as a number of primary sources, Leira emphasises the relative modernity of the concept of ‘diplomacy’, and how it emerged very rapidly as part of a much wider transformation of political vocabularies around 1800. Furthermore, he stresses, how it emerged as a contested concept (almost a term of abuse), and how it has repeatedly been contested over the last two centuries.