Researcher
Morten Skumsrud Andersen
Contactinfo and files
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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Clear all filtersAnarchy 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.
Foreign Investments and National Security: The Case of Russia
Foreign investments have played pivotal roles in China’s overall economic growth over the last several decades, but for different reasons and with varying intensity. In this chapter, we focus mainly on inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and perform three tasks. First, we provide an overview of the foreign investments that have entered China—since economic and market liberalization and internationalization reforms started in the late 1970s. Second, we consider inward FDI with regards to sectoral distribution, where most investments come from, and which sectors are most popular among foreign investors. Third, we discuss Chinese FDI policies and regulations with focus on motivations and seek to explain that although China has changed its regulatory measures considerably over the years, it has remained relatively restrictive and selective in terms of which sectors and types of investments have been, and are still, open for foreign investment.
Trump 2.0 og internasjonal politikk
I denne spesialrapporten har Senter for geopolitikk samlet en rekke bidrag fra forskere tilknyttet senteret, fra Fridtjof Nansen Institutt, Institutt for Forsvarsstudier, Universitetet i Oslo, UiT – Norges Arktiske Universitet og Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt. Bidragene setter søkelys på noen konkrete temaer som inntak til å forstå et USA i endring og hva det vil kunne bety for andre stater, og for utviklingen på konkrete politikkfelt. Rapporten har særlig fokus på hva disse endringene, hver for seg og samlet, betyr for Europa og Norge. En oppdatert versjon ble publisert 12.06.25, klokken 12.40.
NUPI IR Theory Conference 2025
Constructivism in an Era of Geopolitics: Social Construction in Turbulent Times
The Political Economy of National Security, Critical Infrastructure and Securitization of Foreign Investments
This book examines how new flows of foreign direct investments from autocracies are framed, their effects, and the policy responses to them, within the context of challenges to the international liberal order. Chapters address thematic and regional issues, from national investment controls and threat perceptions to China and Russia’s responses. Collectively, they explore a new dynamic in international politics: the securitization of money crossing borders. Historically, foreign investments operated under minimal global regulation, based on the assumption that they were beneficial, and profit driven. However, the past decade has witnessed a radical shift in approaches to foreign investments due to changing investment patterns and the entry of state-sponsored actors into this traditionally unregulated realm. China and Russia are seen to leverage foreign investments to advance their long-term economic and political objectives. The book comprehensively examines the subsequent repositioning of foreign investment policy and its consequences for national and international politics.
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Government allocates NOK 45 million to Geopolitics Research Centre led by NUPI
Norwegian Foreign Policy Conference 2023: Response – Norwegian foreign policy for a new era
The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and NUPI have the pleasure of inviting you to the Norwegian Foreign Policy Conference 2023, 21 March at Sentralen, Oslo.
The unsolicited rocket: a story of science, technology, and future wars
This article investigates the puzzling case of the unsolicited rocket: a Norwegian research establishment successfully developed a weapon system that no one wanted or had asked for that was later widely adopted. We argue that the ‘Terne’ weapon existed not because it was needed based on rational calculations about efficiency, but because of the narratives, coalitions, and competitive dynamics that surrounded it and made it useful. Conventionally, war and technology are often considered distinct ‘things’ with immutable essences, used as variables to explain other phenomena, rather than being examined on their own terms. In this case, we focus empirically on the configuration of sociotechnical imaginaries, and the capacities for action that arise out of it. In foregrounding sociotechnical systems, this is not a case of the ‘militarization’ of civilian society and research in peacetime. Rather, agency lay in competitive networks of narratives and coalitions between technologies, individuals, professions, technological communities, military organizations, and funding bodies, together shaping how ideas and technologies become authoritative and dominant.