Researcher
Minda Holm
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Dr. Minda Holm is a Senior Research Fellow at NUPI, working on questions of global order and global governance, ideology and ideological contestation, the function of different liberalisms and dominant state ideals in international politics historically and at the present time, the tensions between liberal-democratic values and security and warfare, the global ideas of illiberal, reactionary, radical right and antiliberal forces, and the different meanings of sovereignty, morality, and (mis)recognition in global politics. She works on these topics both theoretically (social and political theory), and empirically. She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen (September 2023), with a monograph titled ‘Towards a Social Theory of International Ideology, Ideological Scripts, and Counter-Ideology. Rethinking ‘Liberal International Order’ and the Far Right’s Critique’. Whilst doing her PhD, she also worked at the Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS), where she was a part of the project World of the Right. She was also the project leader between 2018-2023 on a research project that studied the international ideology and networks of the Far Right in Europe, Russia, and the US, and their implications for global order.
Holm has in parallel with writing her monograph published in journals such as Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, and New Perspectives, in peer-reviewed anthologies, and in Scandinavian-language peer-reviewed outlets, on topics ranging from conceptual history and sovereignty, (mis)recognition and shifting state ideals within international law and politics, liberal exceptionalism, self-perceptions, and double standards, reactionary, radical right and illiberal visions of world politics, international diaspora politics, Norwegian, US, and Russian foreign policy and diplomacy, and historical and political changes within liberal internationalism. She has had a monthly column on global politics since 2017, since 2020 in Klassekampen. She holds a double master’s degree in international relations from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the George Washington University, where she was a Fulbright scholar. She has lived and studied in Egypt, Wales, Russia, the US, England, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Denmark, and is a board member of the Human Rights House Foundation (2018- ). She was editor-in-chief of the Scandinavian peer-reviewed IR journal Internasjonal Politikk between 2018 and 2024. See her personal webpage for more, including publications.
Expertise
Education
2018 – 2023 PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen. Submitted November 2022, defended after maternity leave September 2023.
2015 – 2016 MA George Washington University, USA (Fulbright scholar)
2013 – 2014 MSc London School of Economics and Political Science, England
2008 – 2013 BA (2, in parallel), Political Science and Russia studies, University of Oslo and American University in Cairo, Oslo/Egypt
Main work experience
2023 – Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
2018 – 2022 PhD Fellow, NUPI, University of Copenhagen and Danish Institute of International Studies (DIIS)
2017 – 2018 Research Fellow, NUPI
2012 – 2017 Research Assistant, NUPI (fulltime from January 2016)
2012 – 2012 Intern, Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Tajikistan
2010 – 2011 Trainee, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kazakhstan (covering all of Central Asia)
2009 – 2010 Journalist, Radio Nova
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filtersTransformative securitization: Rethinking the Copenhagen School in light of COVID-19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine
This article advances securitization theory by introducing the concept of transformative securitization, in which crises are not only framed as existential threats but also as catalysts for reconstituting political orders. Drawing on the Copenhagen School and Hannah Arendt’s notion of natality, the article distinguishes transformative securitization from conservative forms that aim to preserve the status quo. It conceptualizes transformative securitization through three dimensions: agency (bottom-up and participatory), procedure (disruptive yet potentially democratizing), and outcome (yielding durable institutional or normative change). Through empirical illustrations from Denmark and Norway’s responses to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate change, the article shows how securitization can both constrain and enable democratic transformation. It finds that while some responses reinforce executive power and narrow deliberative space, others—especially in climate politics—reflect participatory and future-oriented securitizing moves that can reconfigure societal sectors or entire polities. Climate change emerges as a paradigmatic case of transformative securitization, where intergenerational justice and systemic change are driven by civic agency. By bridging crisis and political founding, the concept refines securitization theory’s understanding of extraordinary politics and offers new tools to analyze the democratic potential and pitfalls of security responses in an era of overlapping, urgent predicaments.
Towards a Postliberal Global Order? The Crises of the Liberal West
This article is in Norwegian. The article discusses the weakened position of the liberal West in global governance, and the significance of Trump’s USA in this landscape. The first part of the article outlines three central ideological and geopolitical developments related to global order that run counter to the dominant dichotomies between the West and the non-West, democracies and autocracies. Although the world is changing, and the post-1989 form of liberal hegemony is in significant reverse, global politics will not become post-liberal any time soon. The second part discusses how the Western self-image as a unified liberal «us» has unraveled throughout the 2000s. First, Western states have systematically undermined some of the values and institutions they have claimed to represent. The gap between self-image and reality, in parallel with extensive outward moralization, has created a significant legitimacy crisis for the West. Second, the far right has become a central part of the Western political landscape. The new transatlantic community of values under Trump is not liberal, but radical right-wing. The tensions within the community of shared values will be there regardless of who’s in power in the USA. The conclusion is that it is no longer possible to talk about a unified Western liberal «us». Continuing to insist on it will only further strengthen the West’s internal and external tensions.
Et splittet Vesten
Hva er det som skjer med verden for tida? Vi er usikre på om vi fortsatt kan stole på vår nærmeste allierte, og det vestlige fellesskapet er under...
A Postliberal Global Order? Challenge(r)s to the Liberal West
In a new report, NUPI’s senior researcher Minda Holm looks closer at which international order it is that is under pressure. What is the issue with seeing the world through the lens of a post-1945 Liberal International or Rules-Based Order? What do actors like Russia and China have in common with the populist radical right in their perspectives on global politics? And what does Donald Trump’s second term entail for the liberal West?
Vi forstår ikke verden ved å dele den inn i Vesten mot resten
This op-ed is in Norwegian.