Researcher
Morten Skumsrud Andersen
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Morten S. Andersen is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of 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.
Andersen is currently taking part in the project A Conceptual History of International Relations (CHOIR). He is also applying these research topics to an analysis of Colombian foreign policy and global order for the projects Undermining Hegemony and Evaluating Power Political Repertoires (EPOS), and to foreign acquisitions and investments for the project Consequences of Investments for National Security (COINS).
In 2016, Andersen earned his PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). The dissertation is entitled “A Genealogy of the Balance of Power” and is a history of how this concept starts off as a way of preserving a supposed European commonwealth, but then becomes a notion that makes possible the denial of the existence of any such thing as “international society” in favour of a state-centric vision of international affairs. He here shows how that confusing origin and subsequent history defines the parameters of contemporary debates about “the balance of power” in International Relations.
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- Head of the Research Group on Global Order and Diplomacy, NUPI
2008- Research fellow/Doctotal Research Fellow/Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
Aktivitet
Filter
Clear all filters
Empires, Privateering and the sea (EMPRISE)
EMPRISE studies the role of the importance of power at sea for the formation of empires and states from 1500-1856....
Engasjementspolitikk på autopilot: Fredsbygging, fredsbevaring og fredsmegling under Børge Brende
Instruments of State Power: History and Theory (ISPO)
The ISPO Workshop Series will develop new and innovative analytical tools and vocabularies to help understand current developments in global politics. ...
En ny opprinnelse? Om 1800- tallet som startskuddet for dagens internasjonal politikk
Evaluating Power Political Repertoires (EPOS)
EPOS aims to bring about a systematic problem shift in how power politics are studied by moving analytical focus from states' power resources and systemic features of world politics to the actual...
Semi-cores in imperial relations: The cases of Scotland and Norway
Recently, the field of International Relations has seen increased interest in international hierarchy, and also an upswing in the analytical study of imperial logics of rule. Nonetheless, existing structural models of empire focus on core-periphery dynamics, and so cannot explain polities that display elements of both core and periphery. Therefore, I offer the new concept of ‘semi-cores’. Semi-cores are a specific form of historical political associations whereby certain imperial provinces are different from the others in terms of the close relationships it maintains with the imperial metropolis. Semi-cores are different by virtue of being relatively similar. The conceptualisation of semi-cores is followed by a section illustrating its logic, examining the relatively unfamiliar cases of Scotland and Norway and their position within the Danish and British empires, respectively. Although being separate imperial provinces, these were tightly connected to an imperial core. This concept helps us better understand imperial logics, and in the process shows how cultural factors can be formalised into accounts of structural logics of rule, impacting our understanding of both historical and contemporary hierarchical international affairs.