Researcher
Øyvind Svendsen
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Summary
Øyvind Svendsen is Senior Research Fellow in the Research group on global order and diplomacy at NUPI. The core themes in his research are foreign policy, diplomacy, and security and defence policy. Svendsen primarily studies these questions in a European context. His PhD is from the Department of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen (2020).
Øyvind is Editor of the journal Cooperation and Conflict, 2023-2027.
Recent publications:
Theorizing Public Performances for International Negotiations. International Studies Quarterly 66(3): 1-12 (2022).
The Politics of Third Countries in EU Security and Defence: Norway, Brexit and Beyond. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2022).
The Politics of Competence in Global Health: The European Commission’s Global Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. European Foreign Affairs Review 26(SI): 15-29 (2021).
‘Practice time!’ Doxic futures in security and defence diplomacy after Brexit. Review of International Studies 46(1): 3-19 (2020).
Spin-off av EØS? Norge og europeisk utenriks-, sikkerhets- og forsvarssamarbeid. Internasjonal Politikk 77(4): 378-387 (2019). (med Pernille Rieker)
Differentiated (Dis)integration in Practice: The Diplomacy of Brexit and the Low Politics of High Politics. Journal of Common Market Studies 57(6): 1419-1430 (2019). (med Rebecca Adler Nissen)
Brexit and the Future of European Defence: Towards a Practice Approach to Differentiated Defence Integration. Journal of European Integration 41(8): 993-1007 (2019).
Expertise
Education
2020 PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen
2015 MSc International Relations Theory, London School of Economics
2014 BA International Studies and History, Lillehammer University College
Work Experience
2021- Senior Research Fellow, NUPI
2016-2020 Ph.d. candidate, University of Copenhagen
2015-2016 Lecturer, Lillehammer University College
2010-2011 Grenadier, the Royal Norwegian Air Force
Aktivitet
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The Military Power Seminar 2022 – Northern-Europe in a changing security landscape
What are the consequences of the changing security landscape for security in the north? At this year’s Military Power Seminar, we invite you to a debate on the important political issues related to security in Norway’s immediate neighbourhood.
Krig i Europa – Hva skjer med Nordens forsvars- og sikkerhetspolitikk?
Podcast (in Norwegian) about Nordic security cooperation in the past and present, and how the war in Ukraine is affecting the Nordic states’ security and defence policies.
Re-imagining African—Nordic relations in a changing global order
This study asks how the special relationship between countries in Africa and the Nordic region may be affected by a changing global order, that the African-Nordic cooperation can continue to evolve and remain relevant for both regions. The meeting in Helsinki on 14 June 2022 is the 20th meeting of the forum of African–Nordic Foreign Ministers. The forum was established in 2000 between five Nordic countries and ten African countries. It was intended to emphasize the political importance of Africa and to demonstrate that Africa–Nordic relations went beyond development cooperation. The forum meets alternately and rotates among African and Nordic countries and African hosts have included Benin, Botswana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania. The number of African countries expanded over time and now numbers around 25. The annual meeting is an opportunity to consolidate the special relationship between African and Nordic countries and creates a space where political issues of mutual concern can be discussed. As such, it has helped to broaden the African–Nordic relations beyond development cooperation and towards a more politically-oriented and interest-based strategic partnership. Beyond the annual foreign ministers meeting, the other aspect the report looks into is what the sum-total of African-Nordic bilateral relations in the areas of trade, development, peace and security and multilateral cooperation reveals about the status of the overall relationship. Africa pursues strategic partnerships that helps it to develop and strengthen the continent’s economic potential, political identity, and its role on the global stage. In this study we pay particular attention to Africa’s relationship with China, Europe, India, Russia and Turkey. One of the dominant features of Africa’s international relations has been its non-alignment. African countries have been careful to seek partnerships with many different states and regions, without being pulled into any one alliance that may prevent it from also gaining support for its development from others. Therefore, in its strategic partnerships, African countries seeks engagements that will help it to grow its economies.
Norway and the EU towards 2030
This project takes a closer look at developments on key areas in the relationship between Norway and the EU towards 2030....
Norway and Great Power Politics – Geopolitics, Technology and Climate (NISP)
Our times are shaped by developments in geopolitical power dynamics, fast-paced technological development and climate change. In this research program NUPI analyses how these developments change the s...
Responsen på Ukraina-krigen viser en ny fellesnordisk linje i sikkerhetspolitikken
Op. Ed. about responses to the war in Ukraine, and changes in longstanding Nordic security and defence policies.
Security debates and partnership choices in the Nordic states: From differentiation to alignment
Summary: What security challenges do the Nordic states highlight in a fluctuating security environment? Towards which partner institutions, networks and states do they orient themselves, and what role do they envision for further Nordic security and defence cooperation? Focusing on Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, this report maps and analyses present-day debates on security and defence in these four states. Examining both official positions and perspectives presented in the wider political and media debates in all four states, a key finding is that their perceptions of the security environment and of key partnerships have become more aligned over the past decade. Further, all four states are woven into a complex web of European and transatlantic initiatives, partnerships and institutions in security and defence. While Finland and Sweden remain outside of NATO and Norway and Iceland outside of the EU, the Nordic states’ participation and degree of integration in European and transatlantic structures is more similar than it used to be. We also observe that the four states appear more aligned than before in their views on how Nordic security and defence cooperation should develop in the future, and for what purpose. While it is still premature to talk about a ‘common Nordic order’ in the security and defence domain, in all four states we find that there is interest in and commitment to further strengthening Nordic security and defence cooperation.
Nordic partnership choices in a fierier security environment: Towards more alignment
Nordic states’ partnership choices in security and defence are more aligned than they were a decade ago. When Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish government officials now identify key security challenges and partners, and reflect on the potential for Nordic cooperation, they have the same reference points and use similar wording. Since 2014, the toolbox for Nordic defence cooperation has also solidified and different formal affiliations with NATO and the EU seem to matter less than before. Furthermore, an array of multi- and minilateral cooperation structures have emerged across and beyond the EU and NATO, expanding the possibilities for Nordic cooperation under a larger Euro-Atlantic umbrella. However, two limitations remain: First, Nordic security and defence cooperation still remains subordinate to and a supplement rather than an alternative to NATO. Second, putting Nordic response mechanisms into practice remains dependent not only on the context and issue at stake, but also on the political appetite of the individual Nordic governments to choose a Nordic solution.
Norden og alliansene: Sikkerhetspolitisk debatt og veivalg i 2021
Presentation of findings from the research project "Norden and the alliances".
Security Communities in Crisis: Crisis Constitution, Struggles and Temporality
How do we approach a security community in crisis? This article theorises crisis dynamics in and on security communities. How do security communities evolve during crises, and how can we best approach such crises analytically? Responding to a lack of focus and knowledge of crisis dynamics in the literature on security communities, this article develops a methodological model to study security communities in crisis. I argue that the study of security communities in crisis could evolve around four analytical categories: processes of constituting crisis and power struggles and the temporal aspects of social action concerning situatedness and imaginaries. This move allows IR theory to rethink the dynamics of security communities in crisis beyond the endurance/decay binary and provide for more process-oriented and context-sensitive empirical work. By way of illustrating the empirical saliency of the article, I use examples from the Brexit process.