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Researcher

Benjamin de Carvalho

Research Professor
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Contactinfo and files

bdc@nupi.no
+(47) 414 29 826
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Summary

Benjamin de Carvalho is a research professor at NUPI, working in the Research group on Global Order and Diplomacy (GOaD). His research interests have, broadly speaking, been between three areas: (i) historical international relations, (ii) UN peacekeeping, and (iii) status in international relations.

Within these fields, he has published on issues of broader historical change such as the formation of the nation-state in Europe, sovereignty, and the role played by confessionalization and religion. He has also been involved in a number of projects on UN peacekeeping, and has worked on the protection of civilians and sexual and gender-based violence in Liberia, Chad, and the Sudans. He is also involved in projects addressing status as a key driver of foreign policy, focusing on Norway and Brazil. Central issues here are the role played by small states in international politics, emerging powers and great power responsibility. Other research interests include hegemony, popular culture and international relations theory.

De Carvalho is currently involved in work of more historical character. He is currently the Principal Investigator of Empires, Privateering and the Sea (EMPRISE), a project funded by the Research Council of Norway addressing the importance of privateering for the formation of overseas empires in the Atlantic (1556-1856). He is also the main collaborator in Conceptual History of International Relations (CHOIR), led by Halvard Leira.

In addition, de Carvalho has played an important role in the institutionalization of Historical International Relations as a subfield of the discipline of International Relations. Together with Leira, he was instrumental in setting up the Historical International Relations Section of the ISA, of which he has served as section program chair (2015-2017) and section chair (2017-2019). Leira and de Carvalho are also co-editors of the four-volume set Historical International Relations.

He is formerly a co-editor of the leading Scandinavian-language International Relations-journal Internasjonal Politikk.

Benjamin is Editor in Chief of the journal Cooperation and Conflict, 2023-2027.

Expertise

  • Globalisation
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Peace operations
  • Humanitarian issues
  • Nation-building
  • Oceans
  • United Nations
  • Historical IR

Education

2009 PhD in International Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

2001 MA, New School for Social Research, New York, USA

Work Experience

2006- PhD student/Senior Research Fellow/Research Professor, NUPI

Aktivitet

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Whose Revisionism, Which International Order? Social Structure and Its Discontents

While the distinction between status quo and revisionist states is well established in International Relations, only more recently have scholars begun to refine the concept of revisionism itself, emphasizing that revisionism comes in different forms. A number of typologies have been introduced to capture this diversity. In this article, we offer a critique of these typologies, highlighting how many of these works elide the rule-governed and contextual nature of what counts as revisionism. Building on an understanding of international orders as social structures, we argue that the revisionist character of state conduct can only be determined with reference to the conception of the legitimate ends and means current in a particular international order. This leads us to distinguish between three types of revisionism: competitive revisionism that is transgressive of the legitimate means; creative revisionism that is transgressive of the legitimate ends; and revolutionary revisionism that is transgressive of legitimate ends and means. We further emphasize that determining the revisionist character of state conduct always involves interpretation and judgment. The concern for analytical precision conveyed by the development of different typologies of revisionism must therefore be followed by an equally deliberate concern for the politics of revisionism—in both theory and practice.

  • Foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
Articles
New research
Articles
New research

NUPI team to take over as editors of the prestigious journal Cooperation and Conflict

“Our aim is to consolidate Cooperation and Conflict as a platform for IR scholarship that is theoretically innovative, methodologically pluralist, empirically and historically rigorous, critical in outlook yet grounded in and with implications for key mainstream debates,” says Benjamin de Carvalho.
  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • The Nordic countries
  • Global governance
  • Theory and method
  • Historical IR
Event
14:15 - 16:00
NUPI
Engelsk
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Event
14:15 - 16:00
NUPI
Engelsk
14. Jun 2022
Event
14:15 - 16:00
NUPI
Engelsk

“Thinking about Unthinkability in World Politics” with Jennifer Mitzen

The NUPI Center for Historical International Politics (CHIP) invites you to a seminar where Prof. Jennifer Mitzen (Ohio State University) will present work in progress for her next book, “Thinking about Unthinkability in World Politics”.

Publications
Publications

Digital Sovereignty

Digital sovereignty is a relative newcomer, in spite of having become relatively well-entrenched in current policy discourses. In fact, as attacks on digital infrastructures – be they private or public – have become more fierce and frequent, it has become clear that the maintenance of national security largely presumes that a state is able to maintain its cyber security. Recourse to sovereignty in this matter also largely implies a willingness to deal with cybersecurity within the legal domain rather than the purely military one. Digital sovereignty does just that. It asserts national privilege as a matter of principle while at the same time keeping the issue at the level of criminal offence rather than a purely military one.

  • Cyber
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  • Cyber
Event
13:15 - 14:45
NUPI
Engelsk
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Event
13:15 - 14:45
NUPI
Engelsk
20. May 2022
Event
13:15 - 14:45
NUPI
Engelsk

England's Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs

The NUPI Center for Historical International Politics (CHIP) invites you to a seminar where Dr James Ashley Morrison (LSE) will present his latest book, " England's Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs."

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

The Intercity Origins of Diplomacy: Consuls, Empires, and the Sea

City diplomacy is a fairly new topic in the study of diplomacy, and, many would argue, a fairly recent empirical phenomenon. A counterpoint to this could be to reference how the alleged origin of diplomacy in Greek antiquity was city-centered, as were the earliest forms of Renaissance diplomacy in Italy. In this article we want to probe the connections between cities and diplomacy through problematizing what has counted as diplomacy. Our starting point is that cities have always mattered to what we could analytically refer to as diplomatic practice. Being conscious of the conceptual ambiguities, we are thus not starting from a specific definition of “city diplomacy,” but from a conviction that cities have mattered and continue to matter to the practice of diplomacy.

  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Diplomacy
  • Theory and method
  • Historical IR
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  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Diplomacy
  • Theory and method
  • Historical IR
Articles
Articles

Research group for Global Order and Diplomacy

In what ways are the structures and contents of world politics changing? How do global power dynamics influence states’ foreign policy – and vice versa? What characterizes Norway’s past and present role on the international arena?
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Global governance
  • Governance
  • International organizations
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Articles
Articles

Research group for Global Order and Diplomacy

In what ways are the structures and contents of world politics changing? How do global power dynamics influence states’ foreign policy – and vice versa? What characterizes Norway’s past and present role on the international arena?
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Global governance
  • Governance
  • International organizations
Sikkerhetsrådet FN cropped.jpg
Publications
Publications
Book

Hva er Internasjonal Politikk

The term international politics is used both for events and processes in the world around us - and for the study of these. The subject covers obvious topics such as war, trade and diplomacy, but it also deals with more everyday phenomena such as tourism, immigration and how individuals are affected by globalization. This book presents the most important perspectives, theories and debates within the subject. It aims to make the reader more curious and better equipped to reflect on both contemporary and historical international political events.

  • Historical IR
  • Historical IR
Publications
Publications
Chapter

Stubbornly Stumbling into Making History: Constructivism and Historical International Relations

The aim of this chapter is threefold; first we try to recollect through the hazy dim of personal history and histories how we eventually became the researchers we are today. Second, we focus on what to us at the time – and, to some extent, still – appeared as contingent, random and haphazard experiences so as to present a more coherent account, an account that we hope may be a useful tool – or at the least a good read – for younger scholars. In the process, we dwell on choices we have made with respect to how we have sought to approach the world; our approach and our sources. Third, we present an attempt at distilling what we see as the lessons that can be drawn from our work and trajectory, what we in hindsight may call “our approach”, in the hope that the reader will find some useful tools for her own research, or that we at the very least help open up a space for this type of reflection. We elaborate on what we perceive to be the benefits of our preferred approach, and how it may be useful for engaging with scholars beyond the confines of Constructivism.

  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Historical IR
  • Diplomacy and foreign policy
  • Foreign policy
  • Historical IR
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