Publikasjoner
How might the Sudan conflict destabilise the wider region?
The UN says the war in Sudan is spiralling out of control and threatens to destabilize the whole region. Nearly a million people have fled the country, and 4,000 have been killed during fighting between the armed forces and the RSF paramilitary. Andrew E Yaw Tchie from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs has more. Dr Andrew E. Yaw Tchie explains the warning by the UN on Sudan´s conflict destabilising the region.
Semi-peripheries in the world-system? The Visegrad group countries in the geopolitical order of energy and raw materials after the war in Ukraine
What are the geopolitical risk implications related to the war in Ukraine for the raw material and energy policies of countries highly dependent on Russia? This paper looks at the Visegrad Group (V4) states – Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia – as some of the most impacted countries and assesses their position in the emerging new geopolitical and energy order. V4 countries display a semi-peripheral position in the world-system, as defined by Immanuel Wallerstein. On the geopolitical level, they were balancing between dependence on Russia in energy and raw materials (a result of Cold War legacies) and economic integration with Western countries. However, after the Cold War, dependence on raw materials from the East went hand in hand with dependence on technology and investment from the West, as the V4 region saw the emergence of ‘dependent capitalism.’ The war in Ukraine may reshuffle these dependencies by changing the meaning of the ‘centre,’ for which such actors as the United States, Western Europe or China will strive after Russia's importance has weakened in the V4 countries. It may also create an opportunity to redefine the V4's semi-peripheral status. Drawing on an analysis of recent documents and governmental strategies that emerged in the aftermath of Russia's invasion in 2022, we offer a structured comparative analysis of the way V4 states responded to the crisis along four dimensions (positioning in the international political economy of energy and technology, role of the state, visions of energy futures, geopolitical and geoeconomic course). In the conclusions, we outline the main changes in the import of raw materials, fuels and technologies in individual V4 countries and consider the possible position of the region in the future energy geopolitical order.
‘Pragmatic Peacekeeping’ in Practice: Exit Liberal Peacekeeping, Enter UN Support Missions?
Global politikk påvirker FNs fredsbevaring, og fire trender er verdt å merke seg: FN-fredsbevaring blir nedskalert, det gis mindre oppmerksomhet til menneskerettigheter, det er en økende flernasjonal støtte til å bruke FN-fredsbevaring i situasjoner med kontraterror og opprørsbekjemping, og det blir stadig vanligere å støtte parallelle regionale og ad hoc-koalisjoner. Pragmatisk fredsbevaring består i praksis av disse fire trendene, og vil innebære økt støtte til regionale og ad hoc-koalisjoner i form av en ny kategori av FN-støttemisjoner. Artikkelen beskriver viktige finansielle, juridiske, operasjonelle og ansvarsmessige spørsmål som oppstår med FN-støttemisjoner.
The USA treads in Ecowas' bed
Today, West African countries are gathering for a crisis meeting on Niger. The USA's parallel negotiations with the junta could undermine regional attempts to find a solution, the researcher believes.
USA tråkker i Ecowas’ bed
I dag samles vestafrikanske land for et krisemøte om Niger. USAs parallelle forhandlinger med juntaen kan undergrave regionale forsøk på å finne en løsning, mener forsker.
Handbook on European Union Climate Change Policy and Politics
Through detailed and wide-ranging analysis, the Handbook on European Union Climate Change Policy and Politics provides a critical assessment of current and emerging challenges facing the EU in committing to and delivering increasingly ambitious climate policy objectives. Highlighting the importance of topics such as finance and investment, litigation, ‘hard to abate’ sectors and negative emissions, it offers an up-to-date exploration of the complexities of climate politics and policy making.
Convenience or complementarity: the African Union’s partnership with the United Nations in Sudan and South Sudan
Over the past 20 years, the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) have developed a unique partnership rooted in complementarity, respect and African ownership. To reaffirm this partnership, the United Nations Secretary-General and Chairperson of the African Union (UN) Commission signed a Joint UN-AU framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security in 2017. Nevertheless, despite previous lessons learned, gaps in collaboration and strategic thinking, and oversight exist on the ground between the AU and the UN. Drawing on the case(s) of Sudan and South Sudan to further understand the AU’s partnership with the UN through the lens of complementarity and convenience, the paper arrives at a novel conceptualisation of the AU and UN partnership through their political missions. The paper finds that the AU-UN framework is sporadically implemented, and the AU’s role in the partnership on the ground is one of convenience, whereas, in contrast, the UN’s role is one of complementarity aimed at achieving legitimacy. The paper concludes that both organisations in-country were constrained by the lack of collaboration and synergy, which led to a misalignment of joint priorities, impacting the effectiveness of the partnership.
Enhancing the African Union’s function in supporting transitional governments in Africa
In 2010, the African Union (AU) committed to establishing the African Governance Architecture (AGA) as a Pan-African platform to promote good governance, democracy and respect for human rights. The AGA was devised to support the implementation of objectives outlined in the legal and policy pronouncements in the AU’s shared values. However, over the past few years, despite the efforts of this pillar, there has been a noticeable decline in democracy, governance and human rights values in some AU member states. The emergence of coups and constitutional changes has coincided with a trend in the use of transitional agreements/ governments across Africa. Many of these transitional agreements are stagnant, fail to deal with the root causes of grievances (they neglect the challenges that transitional governments must navigate), and often delay steps towards democratic consolidation. Instead they produce forms of military government that entrench authoritarian rule led by military actors who use the transitional agreements to eventually deliver electoral authoritarianism. This paper explores the rise, implementation and effectiveness (processes) of transitional agreements in six African states. It contends that the recent launch of the AU’s Africa Facility to Support Inclusive Transitions in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme is a worthy effort for supporting transitions in Africa. However, it argues that the AU needs to strengthen the AGA pillar and put in place better provisions to support transition mechanisms. It must develop context-specific adaptive stabilisation strategies to support the different forms of transitional government(s), systems, mechanisms and institutions underpinning these transitions to avoid the emergence of an array of transitional governments that do not deliver for the affected communities. Finally, steps must be taken to deal with the root causes of coups etc., which initially receive widespread support, but might indicate that civilian support may be linked to temporarily seeking solutions to the challenges (e.g., economic underdevelopment, centre-rural challenges, political isolation, insecurity etc.) that the government of the day has neglected to deal with.
Norway: Between engagement and caution
Kapittelet omhandler Norges politiske grep om relasjonene til Kina, og er del av en større rapport der mange europeiske land og EU sin Kina-politikk blir kartlagt. Norge forsøker å kombinere engasjement og aktsomhet i sin tilnærming til Kina, og søker samarbeid i saker av felles interesse, samtidig som Norge vil verne om nasjonale sikkerhetsinteresser og liberale normer internasjonalt. I fraværet av en oppdatert, samlet Kina-strategi, har norske myndigheter tatt flere grep for å styrke koordineringen rundt Kina-relaterte spørsmål. Det er imidlertid vanskelig å se effekten av disse grepene, eller se helheten i hva Norge jobber for å oppnå i sine relasjoner til Kina.