Researcher
Pernille Rieker
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Summary
Pernille Rieker's research interests are European integration (EU) and European foreign and security policies. This includes the foreign and security policies of France and the Nordic countries. She has also worked with dialogue and conflict prevention more generally. Rieker obtained her PhD from the University of Oslo in 2004. At NUPI Rieker is part of the Security and Defence research group (SecDef). Furthermore, she is the coordinator of the NUPI Centre for European Studies (NCE) and co-editor of the journal Internasjonal Politikk.
Publications:
Books: European Actorness in a Shifting Geopolitical Order. European Strategic Autonomy Through Differentiated Integration (Springer 2023); French foreign policy in a changing world. Practicing grandeur (Palgrave 2017); External governance as security community building – the limits and potential of the European Neighbourhood Policy (Routledge 2016); Dialogue and Conflict resolution. Potential and limits (Routledge 2015); and Europeanization of National Security Identity. The EU and the changing security identities of the Nordic states (Routledge 2006).
Articles: Making Sense of the European Side of the Transatlantic Security Relations in Africa (Politics & Governance, 2022); 'Not so unique after all? Urgency and Norms in EU foreign and security policy' (Journal of European Integration, 2021); 'Differentiated integration and Europe's Global Role: A Conceptual Framework' (European Foreign Affairs Review, Special Issue, 2021); 'Differentiated Defence Integration Under French Leadership' (European Foreign Affairs Review, Special Issue, 2021); 'Plugging the capability-expectations gap: towards effective, comprehensive and conflict-sensitive EU crisis response?' (European Security nr. 1, 2019); 'EU-supported reforms in the EU neighbourhood as organized anarchies: the case of post-Maidan Ukraine' (Journal of European Integration nr. 4, 2018); 'Autonomy and Integration? Small-state responses to a changing European security landscape' (Global Affairs nr. 3, 2017); 'The EU, Russia and the potential for dialogue – Different readings of the crisis in Ukraine' (European Security nr. 3, 2016); and 'The EEA Grant. A source of Soft Power?' (Journal of European Integration nr. 4, 2015).
More information on her work is included in her CV.
Current Research:
Pernille Rieker leads the RE-ENGAGE-project, which overarching ambition is to assist the EU in refining its foreign policy toolbox, including its enlargement and neighbourhood policies - to enhance the Union’s geopolitical leverage and provide better tools for democracy promotion in its neighbourhood.
Within the framework of Norway and the EU towards 2030 Rieker analyses the evolution of the EU as a security policy actor and the implications for Norway.
In JOINT, she works on how to understand the driving forces and mechanisms of the EU's foreign policy.
As part of the ADHOCISM project, she analyses the role of France's military in Mali.
Expertise
Education:
2004 PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
1998 Can. Polit. in Political Science, University of Oslo
Work experience:
2017- Research Professor, NUPI
2011-2017 Senior Researcher, NUPI
2009-2011 Senior adviser, NordForsk
1999-2009 PhD-candidate/Senior Researcher/Head of Departement, NUPI
Aktivitet
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Clear all filtersEuropean defence beyond institutional boundaries: Improved European defence through flexibility, differentiation and coordination
As a response to the changing geopolitical situation, initiatives aimed to strengthen European defence have been taken in NATO, in the EU, but also bi- and multilaterally between EU member states and associated non-members, such as Norway. This policy brief argues that all these processes must be taken into account when we want to measure the full security and defence capacity of Europe. Rather than a sign of fragmentation, they are preparing the ground for a new European defence architecture, characterised by a high degree of flexibility, which in the end may be better adapted to the current security context. To maximalise the effect of this differentiated defence architecture, however, a certain coordination between the different initiatives is needed. There is now a window of opportunity for such coordination, as two key processes are now running in parallel: the development of a new “strategic concept” for NATO and the development of a “Strategic Compass” in the EU. If this succeeds, we can hope for the development of a more flexible and capable European defence.
The potential and limits of EU crisis response
The aim of this chapter is to identify the potential and limits of the EU’s external crisis response. Rather than focusing on the character of the EU as a foreign policy actor, it concentrates on the EU toolbox or repertoire applied in EU missions and activities in various external crises and conflicts in the near and extended neighbourhood, and also how the Union’s activities are perceived by local stakeholders. A key question is whether there is a match or mismatch between EU intentions, the implementation, and the perceptions of local stakeholders. The analysis in this article draws on both a series of qualitative case studies and a quantitative analysis of a large number of EU documents and statements. This mixed method has enabled us to explore the EU’s crisis response repertoire systematically and from various angles.
Understanding and Strenthening EU Foreign & Security Policy in a Complex and Contested World (JOINT)
The JOINT project analyses these dynamics while addressing the question of how the EU and its member states can make their foreign and security policy structures more joined-up and sustainable....
Ad hoc crisis response and international organisations (ADHOCISM)
ADHOCISM asks what is the impact of ad hoc crisis responses on international organisations?...
Differentiated Defence Integration Under French Leadership
Studies dealing with EU security and defence policy tend to focus exclusively on what is formally included in the Union’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Other initiatives taken outside this framework are frequently seen potentially undermining the development of EU defence – even when the intention is to strengthen defence capacity. This has been the case with the various initiatives taken within or closely linked to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as well as the recent French approach involving the European Intervention Initiative (EI2). An alternative perspective is to see these as integrated parts of a more flexible and differentiated European security framework where all these initiatives combined contribute to strengthening European defence capacity. Building on the argument presented in the introduction to this Special Issue, this article argues that France, as a leader in promoting ‘l’Europe de la défense’, has been instrumental in promoting this differentiated approach to European defence integration, especially under the Macron presidency.
Differentiated Integration and Europe’s Global Role: A Conceptual Framework
In a time of global challenges, rising geopolitical tensions and a weakening of the traditional trans-Atlantic security community, we can expect pressures for Europe to play a more important role in the world. Various initiatives have been taken to strengthen the role of the European Union (EU), but there are also tendencies towards a more complex European governance structure in the making, characterized by a combination of both EU and non-EU (but still European) initiatives. This introductory article presents a framework for studying a European role that includes initiatives taken within and outside the EU framework, but closely interlinked, indicating that the concept of differentiated integration (DI) may help to clarify Europe’s role in a changing and volatile global context.
Research group for Security and defence
Research group for Security and defence
Politique africaine et méditerranéenne de la France : vers une réinvention de l’exceptionnalisme ?
Engagement in Africa is still at the heart of French foreign policy. Over the past twenty years, this African policy has undergone significant changes, which seem to confirm the hypothesis of a reinvention of French exceptionalism, more than its end. It is no secret that French foreign policy practices in Africa have had a negative image associated with Françafrique - a loaded concept that refers to the patronage and corrupt activities of French and African political, economic and military actors. These practices, without having completely disappeared, seem in the process of being replaced. How to characterize them? Are they still an instrument for strengthening French exceptionalism, and if so, how? Besides, is exceptionalism still an interesting concept to help understand French foreign policy in general, and African policy in particular?
The EU's comprehensive response to out of area crises: Plugging the capability-expectations gap
Since adopting a “comprehensive approach” to crisis management in 2013, the EU has spent considerable time and energy on streamlining its approach. Recently, we have also seen a terminological shift from “comprehensive” to “integrated”, indicating an expansion of the approach beyond the development–security nexus to encompass the commitment to the synergistic use of all tools available at all stages of the conflict cycle. It also recognises the need to overcome the EU’s own legal, institutional and budgetary internal/external dichotomies that have troubled a truly joined-up approach in the past. But has this change improved the Union’s capacity to act? Drawing on institutional theory, this article analyses whether the EU has the administrative capacities needed in order to be an effective actor in this area.