Researcher
Morten Skumsrud Andersen
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Summary
Morten S. Andersen is a Senior Research Fellow in the Research group on Global order and Diplomacy. In addition to a focus on theoretical and methodological aspects of International Relations, his research concerns how relations of power and dominance between states have evolved and been legitimated over time. In this, he focuses particularly on hierarchy and empires and on international conceptual history.
Selected publications:
(2026) “How Empires Emerge”, European Journal of International Relations.
(2025) “The Chinese are Coming! U.S. Think Tanks and the Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and North Africa”, with Neil Ketchley and Ole Jacob Sending, Review of International Political Economy.
(2025) “Anarchy is What the Balance of power Made of It: Two core concepts and the public/private distinction”, International Studies Quarterly, 69(3).
(2024) The Political Economy of National security, Critical Infrastructure and Securitization of Foreign Investments. Palgrave McMillan. Ed., with Jakub Godzimirski.
(2022) “The unsolicited rocket: a story of science, technology, and future wars”, Critical Military Studies. With Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud.
(2021) Undermining American Hegemony. The Logic of Goods Substitution in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ed., with Alexander Cooley and Daniel Nexon.
Expertise
Education
2016 PhD, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Title of PhD thesis: A genealogy of the balance of power.
2008 MSc International Relations; London School of Economics
2006 Bachelor in international politics, University of Oslo/Universidad Externado de Colombia
2003 Latin American studies, Universidad de Costa Rica
Work Experience
2022-2025 Head of the Research Group on Global Order and Diplomacy, NUPI
2008- Research fellow/Doctotal Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
Aktivitet
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Psychology, Status, and Recognition in International Politics
In this episode, Professor Deborah Welch Larson joins host Morten Skumsrud Andersen to discuss how the need for recognition and the fear of status...
Uniformens paradoks (The Paradox of the Uniform)
Morten S. Andersen writes about uniforms in this book chapter from the book "Klær - Påkledningens sosiale liv fra bronsealder til Barne-TV". Uniforms are more than clothes and fabric — they are an expression of the fundamental tension between the individual and the collective. They make us part of something larger than ourselves, but can also strengthen our own identity. The uniform is a practical garment, but also a symbol of power, belonging, and self-understanding.
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Få legger merke til hva statsledere og politikere har på seg når antrekket funker. Men når det feiler, blir bekledningen omtrent det eneste folk s...
Chinese infrastructure power in a changing global landscape and its alternatives
This seminar draws on five years of research to examine China's Belt and Road Initiative and its alternatives, from Europe and Latin America to Southeast Asia and the MENA region.
“Ambassador, you’re really spoiling us!” Diplomatic gifts and profligate autocrats
Qatar’s “unconditional” gift of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 to Donald Trump serves as a reminder that states have long used diplomatic gifts to impress others, forge bonds, and secure favorable treatment. However, in an age where citizens and media outlets routinely scrutinize public spending, there is good reason to think that not all governments are able to justify lavishing large sums on such interactions. In this paper, we test the claim that autocracies are less constrained in their diplomatic gift giving due to an absence of domestic accountability mechanisms. To evidence this, the authors draw on a dataset of diplomatic gifts presented to U.S. presidents from 2001 to 2018. The results show that autocratic regimes systematically spend more on diplomatic gifts than do democracies. Supplementary analyses suggest that this is, in part, due to new media in democracies being able to criticize profligate diplomatic practices. Interviews with Norwegian diplomats corroborate the importance of domestic media scrutiny in shaping diplomatic gift giving. The article contributes to scholarship that probes the relationship between regime type and public spending, by showing its relevance to diplomatic interactions.
Gull, gaver og goodwill: Diplomati med silkebånd
Hvorfor ga Qatar en Boeing 747 til en verdi av 400 millioner dollar til Donald Trump, mens Norge gjerne bare gir en liten glassisbjørn? I denne ep...
Roundtable: Constructivism in an Era of Geopolitics
What is the relevance of constructivist scholarship in a world shaped by great power competition, war, and security concerns?
Anarchy is What the Balance of Power Made of It: Two Core Concepts and The Public/Private Distinction in International Relations
In this article, Morten Skumsrud Andersen questions a familiar assumption in International Relations (IR): that the balance of power and anarchy are mutually reinforcing concepts. He argues instead that this relationship is neither natural nor necessary. Modern understandings of anarchy do not reflect timeless features of international politics, but are historically contingent outcomes of changes in how the balance of power concept itself has been understood and deployed. Drawing on conceptual history, Andersen traces how the balance of power transitioned from a principle embodying Europe’s public interest in the eighteenth century to an expression of national rivalry and competitive self-interest in the nineteenth. This transformation was underpinned by a broader redefinition of the public/private distinction, which enabled states to be imagined as atomistic units operating in decentralized, market-like competition—what came to be seen as anarchy. By recovering the practical history of the balance of power, Andersen reinterprets the genealogy of two foundational IR concepts and call for greater reflexivity about the analytical tools through which international relations are theorized.