Researcher
Paul Beaumont
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Summary
Paul Beaumont received a Ph.D. in International Relations/International Environmental Studies and Development from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2020. He is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), working in the Global Order and Diplomacy research group. Paul leads the ERC Starting Grant funded project “Navigating the Era of Indicators”, which explores the politics of quantification across education, climate, and health policy fields, as well as in global governance in general. 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 pluralist research methods.
Paul has published two monographs: "Performing Nuclear Weapons: How Britain Made its Bomb Make Sense" (Palgrave 2021) and “The Grammar of Status Competition: International Hierarchies and Domestic Politics” (Oxford University Press, 2024). The latter won the APSA Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics section book prize in 2025. His research has featured in numerous leading journals, including European Journal of International Relations, Review of International Studies, Contemporary Security Policy, New Political Economy, Third World Quarterly and International Studies Review, among others. He has also co-edited two volumes, Governing Nature and the Making of World Order and The Politics of Public–Private Partnerships and International Development, and a special issue on "Status Symbols in World Politics".
A keen contributor to policy and public debate, Paul has published multiple op-eds in Klassekampen, Aftenposten, among other Norwegian national newspapers. Committed to fostering pluralistic, rigorous and theoretically informed research within the discipline of IR and adjacent fields, Paul is currently an editor of the Nordics’ leading IR journal Cooperation and Conflict and a co-chair of the Knowledge in IR (KnowIR) section for the European International Studies Association.
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 filtersRedd kulturlivet – planlegg en post-koronafest!
A debate is raging about how to save Norwegian cultural life from Corona. The government’s rescue package is widely considered insufficient and thus the argument is concentrated upon how much is needed and to whom it should go. This is sensible, but the depressive terms of the debate have blinded everyone to a unique opportunity. Now we know vaccines are coming, it’s time to think bigger, more collective and long term. Why not put these unemployed cultural workers to do something they are good at: throwing a party? Not just any old party: a month-long, state-sponsored, Norway-wide, series of festivities to celebrate Corona’s passing. Like an end of the world party, but celebrating the world not ending. It could be spread throughout public spaces, like the Edinburgh festival, but less exclusive, as big as the Olympics, but less lycra. If that sounds crazy, hear me out. First of all, Norway has a lot of latent party talent unemployed through no fault of their own. That means, in practice, NAV is currently paying professional event-organisers not to organise parties. Likewise, the state is currently paying 60-80% of the income of musicians, technicians, actors, theatre workers, and many more who could contribute. Thus, we could treat whatever the government is paying them now as a free subsidy, and just top it up so they can put on a massive party instead. It would not only make financial sense. A post-Corona party would also provide these workers with a purpose, and give the country something to look forward to amidst a year of depression and uncertainty. Indeed, Norwegians are unusually well-trained for just such an event: generations of Russ, who would surely relish the opportunity to get back on a bus. The key to a successful post-corona party would be inclusiveness. First, it should take place in July when schools are out. Second, the party should be spread throughout the communes. Third, it should embrace the broadest definition of culture possible; from futbal to opera, comedy to skateboarding, cinema to puppetry. Fourth, all events should be free at the point of use; like the British NHS. In short, there should be something for everybody and everybody should be able to afford it. Ultimately, the event would pay for itself. Norway will need to instigate a stimulus to kick start the economy anyway. A massive party would be like a New Deal, except with culture instead of infrastructure. Indeed, like infrastructure, investing in culture would produce what economists call a “multiplier effect”; whereby money injected into the economy fosters growth above the initial outlay. Further, turn it into a global event and it will generate tourist revenues. It may even persuade Norwegians to take a vacation at home instead of Syden. Beyond helping to save culture, it would be cathartic for citizens. Providing a much needed release after a dark period. Let’s face it, we deserve a big party, having spent the last year staying in, following the rules, and cancelling Christmas.
Nye våpen, gamle vrangforestillinger: Hvordan forstå Boris Johnsons atomvåpen-politikk
If you want to make Britain’s nuclear weapon policy make sense, you need to look inwards not outwards. Just as go-faster stripes please the owner, Britain’s new nuclear policy is better understood as a symbolic gesture performed mainly for its domestic audience. It is crucial here to understand the political function that publicly established force-limits have played British nuclear politics
Grading greatness: evaluating the status performance of the BRICS
An impressive portfolio of case-study research has now demonstrated how and through what means the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries have sought higher social status. However, this field of research lacks systematic means of evaluating this status-seeking. This article fills this lacuna by developing a mixed-methods framework enabling scholars to zoom in and compare individual states’ relative status performance. Using diplomatic representation as a proxy for status recognition and comparing it to a country’s status resources (wealth), the framework indicates how successfully countries have generated recognition from the international society. The findings show that China’s economic ascent has been matched by increased recognition, and that South Africa enjoyed an almost immediate ‘status bounce’ following apartheid, turning it from a pariah to a significant overperformer. Russia should be understood as an ‘overperforming status-dissatisfied power’ while India’s status performance has been around ‘par’ for a country of its economic resources. Lastly, Brazil underperforms more than any of the other BRICS, especially since its democratic transition. The findings highlight considerable variance in the type and duration of gaps between status resource and recognition and suggests that rather than treating these as ‘inconsistencies’ awaiting correction, they can and should be accounted for by case study analyses.
Three EISA Conference Paper Presentations
Presented three papers: 1. Symmetry over Strategy: How Status Suckered the Superpowers at SALT; 2. Status Symbols in World Politics (Co-authored with Pål Røren) 3. The Curse of Reflexivity: A Genealogy of ‘Turn-Talk’ in IR (and Beyond) Served as chair on three panels: 1. Expertise and Politics of Space and Time 2. The (Dis)functions of Status Symbols in World Politics 3. War and Status Symbols
Hvem har tid til å delta?
A debate around the internationalization of Norwegian universities was clumsily set into motion last week by Cecilie Hellestveit from Folkerettsinstituttet. In short, she argued that the Norwegian public sphere is impoverished as a result of foreign scholars taking all the Norwegian academic jobs and neither having the will nor ability to contribute to the public debate. While I disagree profoundly with Hellestveit reasoning she is certainly right that internationalization of Norwegian universities poses dilemmas that warrant concern. However, rather than prompting discussion, the debate was de-railed by the rektor or NMBU, Curt Rice, who countered with an even clumsier assertion that she should apologise and that journalists should stop citing her. Predictably, if boringly, this has led to an outcry about freedom of speech. I can empathise with Rice’s hurt, as a international academic myself, Hellestveit certainly provoked me. But one can and should rebut her argument without resorting to censorship.
Hvis ikke Norge går i bresjen for en grønn omstilling, hvem da?
The faster Norway embarks on a responsible but speedy end to its reliance on oil, the greater the potential reputational, diplomatic, and commercial gains for Norway, write three NUPI researchers in this op-ed.
Public–Private Development Interfaces in Ethiopia (DEVINT)
Private actors are increasingly operating in the name of development and in partnership with international development actors. This project (DEVINT) will explore the nexus of private a...
The 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.