Ukrainsk energisektor i eit nytt politisk landskap
President- og parlamentsvalet tidlegare i år har ført til store endringar i den politiske maktbalansen i Ukraina. Kva betyr dette for energisektoren i landet?
Hverdagsliggjøring og monopolisering av nasjonsomgrepet i Russland
Førsteamanuensis J. Paul Goode held foredrag om korleis nasjonalisme har blitt "banalisert" i den russiske kvardagen etter Sovjetunionens samanbrot.
Reyting gotovnosti k peremenam: Sposobny li rossiyskiye neftyanye kompanii adaptirovatsya k novym realiyam mirovykh energeticheskikh rynkov
Er russiske oljeselskaper i stand til å tilpasse seg til den nye virkeligheten i internasjonale energimarkeder?
Russland og det europeiske menneskerettssystemet
Russlands tilnærming til den europeiske menneskerettskonvensjonen er i ferd med å endrast. Kva er framtidsutsiktene for russisk deltaking i dette systemet?
Eksisterer det framleis eit «aust-vest-skilje» i Europa 30 år etter murens fall?
I det siste temanummeret til tidsskriftet Nordisk Østforum tar vi eit nærare blikk på omgrepet «Aust» og om det framleis er ei relevant nemning i den offentlege debatten.
David Petraeus gjestet NUPI
NUPI hadde gleden av å ha besøk av David H. Petraeus 30. september.
China’s Export Success: Due to Unfair Practices or Fair Competition?
Compared with previous ratings, China’s trade policy today is more positively acknowledged. Yet, China can still be criticised in particular because of its non-transparent subsidy policy, the privileged role of state-owned enterprises, the heavy hand of the state in general, the sluggish enforcement of intellectual property rights, and the prevalence of non-tariff barriers. Yet, it cannot be ignored that Chinese entrepreneurship mentality is highly developed outside state interference in world markets. Especially, in the digital economy, high motivation and a large pool of human skills act as drivers of innovations, so far mainly process innovations. The trade war with the US hurts China and is responded by China with asymmetrical retaliation. The more Chinese exports to the US in total are affected, the more costs will have to be borne by US consumers as options to shift to alternative suppliers become weaker. What President Trump would see as a “good” deal for the US is unclear. It can be thus presumed that the trade war will continue into 2020 and that it is in fact a tech war. The EU is affected as EU companies produce in China for the US market and in the US for the Chinese market. While it might gain from trade diversion effects in the short run, the negative effects on investment due to uncertainty weigh more heavily. The EU is tempted to negotiate a free trade agreement with China but rightly refuses to start negotiations before China is prepared to conclude an agreement on investment. The EU should not see China and the US on equidistance. Workable relations with the US are much more important. To conclude, China’s trade policy has improved relative to Western standards but still warrants further steps towards much less state influence. Yet, its global competiveness especially in the state-of-the-art digital economy is high and is owed to a strong entrepreneurial mentality.
A Century of US Diplomatic Security: An Evolutionary Response to a Changing Threat Environment
This chapter traces nearly 100 years of US Diplomatic Security from its pre-WWI origins up to the Obama Administration, describing the key drivers of its qualitative and quantitative expansion through the Cold War into the post 9-11 world. It offers a detailed breakdown of the various roles and missions of the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, as well as the ancillary diplomatic security role played by the US military.
Local Drivers of Violent Extremism in Central Mali
This policy brief examines the processes of violent extremist mobilisation and radicalisation in Mopti, Central Mali. Specifically, it looks at the strategies employed by one of the most salient radical jihadist groups in the region, the Katiba Macina. It seeks to answer the following questions: 1) Given that violent extremist mobilisation has not taken root uniformly across regions in Mali, and because it is often endogenous to local dynamics, how has Mopti as a region become an enabling environment for jihadist actors like the Katiba Macina? 2) How do groups like the Katiba Macina mobilise local support and integrate themselves among communities? 3) Why do individuals join, adhere to or accept the Katiba Macina?