Researcher
Paul Beaumont
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Summary
Paul Beaumont holds a Ph.D. in International Relations/International Environmental Studies and Development from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), working in the Global Order and Diplomacy research group. Paul is currently researching public private partnerships in development as part of the DEVINT project, and transnational ecosystem politics with the LORAX project.
More broadly, Paul's research interests include IR theory, the (dis)functioning of international institutions, global environmental politics, nuclear weapons, hierarchies in world politics, and interpretivist research-methods.
Paul has published a monograph with Palgrave Studies in International Relations, titled "Performing Nuclear Weapons: How Britain Made its Bomb Make Sense", and has published multiple articles in leading IR journals: European Journal of International Relations, Third World Quarterly and International Studies Review, among others. A keen contributor to policy and public debate, Paul has published multiple op-eds in Klassekampen, Aftenposten, among other Norwegian national newspapers. He is currently an associate editor of New Perspectives Journal of International Relations, and a regular guest lecturer on IR theory at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Paul is Editor of the journal Cooperation and Conflict, 2023-2027.
Expertise
Education
2020 Doctorate, International Relations/International Development and Environment Studies. The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
2014 Master of Science, International Relations. (NMBU)
2006 Bachelor, Economic History. The London School of Economics (LSE)
Work Experience
2020- Senior Researcher, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)
2019 Visiting Scholar. The Department of Politics and International Studies. Cambridge University
2015-2020 PhD Candidate, The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU)
2015 Junior Research Fellow. NUPI
2013-2015 Academic Writing Advisor, NMBU
2006-2012 English Teacher - Prague, Tokyo, Buenos Aires, London, Gliwice
Aktivitet
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Clear all filtersThe Rankings Game: A Relational Approach to Country Performance Indicators
As the number of international rankings has risen dramatically since the 1990s, a large body of scholarship has emerged to examine and understand them. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of this body of work and to chart out fruitful directions for future research. In short, prior scholarship has been surprisingly quiet on the relations among multiple actors and their economic dimensions at the core of country performance indicator (CPI) activities. To foreground crucial socioeconomic relations, we develop a relational heuristic based upon a sports analogy: the actors involved in the creation and maintenance of CPIs can fruitfully be approached as a complex of players, referees, coaches, and audiences. Such an account helps us better understand how CPIs emerge and are sustained, even when they rely on dodgy data and their effects are perverse. We use nation brand rankings—overlooked in international relations research—as empirical illustration.
Performing Nuclear Weapons: How Britain Made Trident Make Sense
This book investigates the UK’s nuclear weapon policy, focusing in particular on how consecutive governments have managed to maintain the Trident weapon system. The question of why states maintain nuclear weapons typically receives short shrift: its security, of course. The international is a perilous place, and nuclear weapons represent the ultimate self-help device. This book seeks to unsettle this complacency by re-conceptualizing nuclear weapon-armed states as nuclear regimes of truth and refocusing on the processes through which governments produce and maintain country-specific discourses that enable their continued possession of nuclear weapons. Illustrating the value of studying nuclear regimes of truth, the book conducts a discourse analysis of the UK’s nuclear weapons policy between 1980 and 2010. In so doing, it documents the sheer imagination and discursive labour required to sustain the positive value of nuclear weapons within British politics, as well as providing grounds for optimism regarding the value of the recent treaty banning nuclear weapons.
Studying Nuclear Storytelling: How Britain Makes Its Bomb Make Sense
Re-imagining the world after the pandemic
Research group for Global Order and Diplomacy
Research group for Global Order and Diplomacy
What is at Stake in Norway's Post-election Climate Negotiations
Lorax in Motion: Building the Transnational Ecosystem Politics Database
Lorax in Motion is a series whereby we report and reflect upon the Lorax project’s ongoing research activities. Here, we zoom in upon Lorax’s Dr Cristiana Maglia, who recently received her PhD in Political Science Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), after a stay as a visiting scholar at The University of Oxford. Her primary research interests include institutions, right wing political parties, electoral markets and ideology.
Launching Norway’s Plan for the UN’s “Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development”
NUPI’s Centre for Ocean Governance is ready to step up to challenge.
When every act is war: Post-Crimea conflict dynamics and Russian foreign policy (WARU)
Tension between great powers in world politics is escalating rapidly. What are the driving forces behind deteriorating relations? Can we explain them solely by the ‘aggressiveness’ of the other (be th...