Researcher
Kjetil Selvik
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Kjetil Selvik is a Research Professor and Head of NUPI’s Research Group on Peace, Conflict and Development. He holds a PhD in political science from Sciences Po in Paris and works on struggles over states and regimes in the Middle East.
Selvik har previously worked as researcher at Fafo and at the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) and been Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Comparative Politics, University of Bergen, and at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Language, University of Oslo.
See all Selvik's publications from CMI here.
Expertise
Education
2004 Docteur en sciences politiques, Sciences Po, Paris. Dr Artium, University of Oslo
1999 Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies (Master), Sciences Po, Paris
1998 Cand. Mag. (Bachelor), University of Oslo (Political Science, Arabic, Middle East)
Work Experience
2017- Senior Research Fellow/Research Professor, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
2015-2017 Adjunct Associate professor, University of Oslo (Middle East Studies)
2012-2017 Senior Researcher, Chr. Michelsen Institute
2013-2015 Adjunct Associate professor, University of Bergen (Comparative Politics)
2007-2012 Researcher, Fafo institute of Applied International Studies
2007-2012 Adjunct Associate professor, University of Oslo (Middle East Studies)
2004-2007 Assistant professor, University of Oslo (Culture Studies & Oriental Languages)
2005-2006 Assistant professor, Oslo University College
2001-2004 PhD fellow, Norwegian Research Council/University of Oslo
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filters
Breakfast seminar: Can blockchain save journalism?
Professional journalism is under pressure worldwide. Walid Al-Saqaf argues that the underlying technology for Bitcoin could be a solution to the problem.
Teheran. Revolusjon og reaksjon.
(Norwegian only): Temaet for kapitlet er Teherans rolle og betydning i et Midtøsten i endring og konflikt. Jeg ser byen som brennpunkt for tre store slag som står i regionen: kampene over Vestens rolle, folkets makt over politiske avgjørelser og islam som samfunnskontrakt. Jeg viser hvordan kampene spilles ut i Teheran, og hvordan de speiler Irans utfordringer som regional makt. Kapitlet drøfter forholdet mellom innen- og utenrikspolitikk og tar konflikten med Saudi-Arabia som eksempel.
Autocratic legitimation in Iran: Ali Khamenei's discourse on regime 'insiders' and 'outsiders'
The article analyses Ali Khamenei’s discourse on insiders and outsiders in the Islamic Republic of Iran, arguing that it shows the leader of an electoral revolutionary regime striving to counter elite fragmentation and growing democratic demands. It studies identity demarcation as a tool of autocratic legitimation. In a political system where the possibility to access political positions depends on supporting a belief-system, all cadres share a basic identity, which rulers can exploit to draw boundaries between “us” and “them”. The analysis reveals how Iran’s leader capitalizes on the existence of an insider-outsider divide to promote ideas about an imagined “we” of the regime. The “we” is portrayed as an Islamic we, fully committed to his rule. The article maintains that Khamenei developed this discourse in response to the challenge of the Iranian reform movement. It analyses, first, the context in which the discourse emerged and, second, the discursive strategy itself, to substantiate the claim. It concludes that the discourse had two essential aims in the containment (1997–2003) and crushing (2009–2010) of the pro-democracy reformist and Green movements: to de-legitimate Khamenei’s opponents through othering and to legitimate the counter-mobilization of repressive agents.
Religiøs autoritet og tynnslitt stat: Valgkamp i sjia-Irak
(Available in Norwegian only) Artikkelen diskuterer sjia-muslimske religiøse lærdes relasjon til statsmakt og analyserer hvordan religiøs autoritet tas i bruk som politisk valuta i Irak. Den tar utgangspunkt i fredagsprekener holdt i forkant av parlamentsvalget 12. mai 2018. Religiøse ledere har måter å generere autoritet på som politikere i svak tilstand mangler. Fremfor alt har Storayatollah 'Ali al-Sistani enorm prestisje, som var tydlig i valget. Artikkelen gjør opp status for Sistanis holdning til irakisk politikk og sammenstiller budskapet med posisjonene til systemkritiske Muqtada al-Sadr samt Jalal al-Din ‘Ali al-Saghir, som målbar interessene til den Iran-vennlige valgalliansen al-Fatah. Den viser hvordan Sadr og Saghir tøyer Sistanis autoritet for å tjene konkurrerende agendaer og setter storayatollahen i en vanskelig situasjon.
Hybrid paths to resistance in the Muslim world: Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Mali (HYRES)
HYRES studies the interaction between Islamist movements and the state in the cases of Iraq, Lebanon, Libya and Mali, and is designed to answer the following question: Why do some Islamist groups purs...
Turkey under Erdogan - a weaker state?
Emre Caliskan visits NUPI to talk about Turkeys thoughts on AKP and president Erdogan after much dissatisfaction, protests and a coup attempt in the country.
Societal Transformation in Conflict Contexts (TRANSFORM)
In times of radical uncertainty and flux: how do individual actions inspire collective action or lead to new institutional practices in ways that determine the direction of a society?...