Researcher
Niels Nagelhus Schia
Contactinfo and files
Summary
Niels Nagelhus Schia is a research professor, head of NUPI's Research group on security and defense, and co-chair of NUPI's Center on digitalization and cyber security studies.
He is a former fellow of the NSSR (New School for Social Research) and holds a PhD degree in social anthropology from the University of Oslo.
With a focus on the role of cybersecurity and cybersecurity governance in international relations Schia tracks new developments in policy and research, and provide academic studies, expert analysis and strategic policy recommendations. His research focus combines anthropology and international relations theory with theories of cyber security. His current projects are concerned with norms and state behavior in cyber space, development assistance and capacity building, societal vulnerabilities, sovereignty and cyberspace, global governance and cyberspace. In the research project GAIA (funded by the Research Council of Norway's IKTPLUSS initiative) Schia explores links between digital value chains, national autonomy and international politics. This is a four-year cooperation between SimulaMet, NUPI and several other institutions and universities. Read his most recent article The Cyber Frontier and Digital Pitfalls in the Global South published in Third World Quarterly (2018).
Schia has worked on numerous topics within international organizations, global governance, peacebuilding and statebuilding over the previous years. He has acted as an adviser to governments and international organizations on issues pertaining to capacity building, institution building and global governance. He has participated in international discussions and working groups in the United Nations and regularly participates at international conferences. He has long experience with developing and finalizing research projects financed by governments and research councils. A cross cutting concern in these research projects has been the exploration of global connections to more localized and national contexts. This is also a concern in his book Franchised States and the Bureaucracy of Peace (Palgrave Macmillian, 2018) and in his chapter Horseshoe and Catwalk: Power, Complexity and Consensus-Making in the United Nations Security Council in the book Palaces of Hope: The Anthropology of Global Organizations (Cambridge University Press, 2017).
Schia has published in scientific journals such as Third World Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Peacekeeping, Journal of International Relations and Development, and Political and Legal Anthropology.
His current research focuses on cyber security, cyber capacity building in developing countries and emerging economies, internet governance and collaboration between states and non-state actors.
He is a former Fulbright Scholar and from January 2017 he is a co-editor of the leading Scandinavian-language International Relations-journal Internasjonal Politikk.
Expertise
Education
2015 PhD, Social Antropology, University of Oslo
2004 Cand.polit., Social anthropology, University of Oslo
Work Experience
2022- Head of NUPI's Research group on security and defence
2017- Co-editor of the leading Scandinavian-language International Relations-journal Internasjonal Politikk
2015- Head, NUPI's Cyber Security Centre. 2010 Advisor, Civil Affairs, Policy Best Practices Services (PBPS), UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, New York HQ
2009 Visiting scholar at The New School for Social Research, New York, Leiv Eiriksson mobility programme (The Research Council of Norway) and Fulbright Scholar
2003- Research Assistant / Research Fellow / Senior Research Fellow/Research Professor, NUPI
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2012-2016 Board member Fulbright Alumni Association of Norway
2013-2016 Head of Scientific Committee for Fulbright annual research award
Aktivitet
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Estonia's president on security in the Baltic Sea region
Estonia plays an important role in Europe’s relationship to Russia. The president of Estonia visits NUPI to give some insight in the security challenges in the area.
China's Cyber Sovereignty
This policy brief analyses China’s ambitions for imposing and strengthening the concept of cyber sovereignty in international negotiations on topics related to cybersecurity and Internet governance (IG). The presentation proceeds through four interconnected steps: 1. brief introduction and background to the Chinese ‘cyber sovereignty’ concept. 2. China’s role in defining, developing, and promoting this concept in international politics. 3. international responses to the Chinese use of the concept of cyber sovereignty, and how this should be seen in conjunction with current trends in Chinese foreign-policy strategies. 4. the use of cyber sovereignty in diplomacy, and how China uses this concept to counter Western dominance in cyberspace. Thus, the policy brief offers a brief examination of how the Chinese idea of state sovereignty in cyberspace influences how China positions itself in international negotiations with regard to issues such as security, economy and trade, and soft power (diplomacy/governance).
Theory seminar: Attribution and international society in cyber security
In this theory seminar Dr Madeline Carr will present her paper on attribution and international society in cyber security as understood by Hedley Bull where she uses cyber space as a case study.
Upholding the NATO cyber pledge: What does cyber deterrence and cyber resilience mean for NATO and Norway?
The aim of this project is to explore how and to what extent deterrence works in cyberspace or whether a focus on resilience as the new strategic logic is the way forward....
Horseshoe and Catwalk: Power, Complexity and Consensus-making in the United Nations Security Council
This volume assembles in one place the work of scholars who are making key contributions to a new approach to the United Nations, and to global organizations and international politics more generally. Anthropology has in recent years taken on global organizations as a legitimate source of its subject matter. The research that is being done in this field gives a human face to these world-reforming institutions. Palaces of Hope demonstrates that these institutions are not monolithic or uniform, even though loosely connected by a common organizational network. They vary above all in their powers and forms of public engagement. Yet there are common threads that run through the studies included here: the actions of global institutions in practice, everyday forms of hope and their frustration, and the will to improve confronted with the realities of nationalism, neoliberalism, and the structures of international power.
Det frie internettet er under angrep
Kronikk: Kina og Russland prøver allerede å ta kontroll over «sitt» internett. Vil Vesten nå, etter USA-hackingen og foran vårens valg i Europa, følge etter? This op-ed is published in Norwegian only.
Theory seminar: Applying Old Rules to New Cases: International Law in the Cyber Domain
NUPI has the pleasure of inviting you to a seminar with Mark Raymond, Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma.
Trusselen fra cyberspace
(Op-ed in Norwegian only): Cyberangrep øker i omfang verden over. Norge er et av verdens mest digitaliserte land og dermed spesielt utsatt, men dette blir i stor grad oversett av politikere og næringslivsledere.
The Cyber Frontier
The cyber frontier perspective serves to explicate that the Global South’s participation in digitalization is not simply a matter of joining cyberspace. On the contrary, it is a matter of selective forms of global connection in combination with disconnection and exclusion. I contextualize security concerns by describing the trajectory of digitalization in the Global South. I proceed by exploring how “technological leapfrogging” can create new and unique societal vulnerabilities. By linking digitalization with security and economic growth, cybersecurity is seen in connection with development assistance and the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Finally, I hold that this triple knot (digitalization, security and economic growht) represents an opportunity for donors such as the EU to foster new types of development assistance building on a continued engagement in the Global South.
Cyber Security as Development Assistance - Growth and Vulnerability
The importance of digital technology underpins most of the social, economic and political development goals of most donor countries and international organisations today. Cyber Security Capacity Building (CCB), an approach aimed at advancing, cultivating and encouraging growth and stability in developing countries through digitalization, seems set to play an increasingly important role in future foreign policy considerations and government programmes. In the NUPI project ‘Cyber Security Capacity Building (2015-2016) we have mapped out concrete risks and challenges, proposed recommendations for dealing with them, and provided suggestions for implementing the adequate tools effectively. This policy brief presents a summary of the final report, which draws on project reports produced by NUPI related to this project.