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NUPI skole

Researcher

Rita Augestad Knudsen

Senior Research Fellow
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Contactinfo and files

rak@nupi.no
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Summary

Rita Augestad Knudsen is a Senior Researcher at NUPI’s research group for Security and Defence. She currently works especially on counterterrorism, in particular prevention, as well as cyber, and on the intersection between political and legal discourse on different aspects of international security. She is the managing director of the Consortium for Terrorism Research and affiliated with C-REX (Centre for Research on Extremism, University of Oslo)

Rita Augestad Knudsen’s publications include current and historical analyses of terrorism-related risk assessment, mental health, criminal responsibility legislation and frameworks, legal/political discourse and ideational formation on various issues of international security, including radicalization, self-determination, freedom, international sanctions and international statebuilding. Geographically, her main focus is the UK (including Scotland), as well as other parts of Europe.

Expertise

  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Human rights
  • International organizations
  • The EU
  • Historical IR

Aktivitet

Event
10:00 - 11:30
NUPI
Engelsk
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Event
10:00 - 11:30
NUPI
Engelsk
15. Dec 2023
Event
10:00 - 11:30
NUPI
Engelsk

Algorethics: Responsible governance of artificial intelligence

How can we develop artificial intelligence ethically?

Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Naturalisation through mainstreaming Counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation in UN and EU discourse

In the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, counter-terrorism was initially pursued throughout the world as a matter of exceptional ‘hard security’. International and national authorities generally position terrorism as a uniquely threatening phenomenon warranting delineated budgets, systems, and structures within the law enforcement and defence realms. However, with the growing focus on radicalisation as assumedly essential in leading to terrorism and counter-radicalisation as an ever more central part of counter-terrorism, its scope was expanded far beyond the ‘hard security’ field; counter-radicalisation enabled the growth and integration of counter-terrorism into ‘softer’ societal sectors. This chapter argues that this shift from a hard security framing of counter-terrorism to a broadening of its scope through a foregrounding of counter-radicalisation should be conceptualised as a process of ‘mainstreaming’. After explaining the concept of mainstreaming and how it captures this development, the chapter offers a brief discourse analysis of such mainstreaming through the lens of key official UN and EU counter-terrorism documents. On the basis of this investigation, the chapter finds that the discursive mainstreaming of counter-terrorism and counter-radicalisation suggests their ‘naturalisation’.

  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Governance
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  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Governance
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Vad är frihet?

”Frihet” är på allas läppar i dagens offentliga samtal – och lyfts då särskilt som ett värde som tillhör den politiska högern. Rita Augestad Knudsen tar i den här artikeln sin utgångspunkt i Lea Ypis bok Fri. En uppväxt vid historiens slut, och läser den som ett möjligt bidrag till debatten. Augestad Knudsen diskuterar hur Ypis bok kan förstås som ett försök att flytta frihetsbegreppet närmare den politiska vänstern, och att säga något om vad frihet innebär som ett politiskt värde idag. Författaren tar också upp hur boken fungerar som text och litteratur, med tonvikt på de idéer om frihet som framträder i den, och hur den skildrar Albaniens nära förflutna ”vid historiens slut” och övergången från auktoritär kommunism till marknadskapitalism. Trots att Fri är både spännande och intressant läsning så uppfyller den tyvärr inte fullt ut sina implicita löften om att utveckla dagens politiska frihetsdiskurs.

  • Europe
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  • Europe
Publications
Publications
Scientific article

Why Terrorism Researchers Should Care about Criminal Responsibility

Criminal responsibility is a basic principle in holding individuals to account for criminal actions. Making exemptions to criminal responsibility when individuals cannot be held responsible for their actions is equally central, and most countries have frameworks allowing for such exemptions for reasons of serious mental health problems. However, despite the recent years’ enormous interests in the possible links between individual ‘mental health’ and involvement in terrorism, the issue of criminal responsibility has apparently so far not been the subject of much interest in the field of terrorism research. This Research Note makes the simple point that criminal responsibility should be of particular interest to terrorism researchers, for two main reasons: the centrality of (political, religious, ideological) motivations for defining a crime as terrorism-related and the sometimes-difficult boundary-setting between such motivations and (psychotic) delusions; and the political nature of terrorism-related crimes.

  • Terrorism and extremism
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  • Terrorism and extremism
Event
14:00 - 15:30
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk
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Event
14:00 - 15:30
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk
2. Feb 2022
Event
14:00 - 15:30
Microsoft Teams
Engelsk

Mental health and radicalization

The possible relationship between mental health and radicalization, extremism and terrorist involvement has received a lot of attention recently. But what do we really know about this relationship?

Publications
Publications
Report

Psykisk helse, terrorisme, ekstremisme og radikalisering

The possible connection between mental health, radicalisation, extremism, and involvement of terror has received a lot of attention as of late. But what do we really know about this connection? What are we unaware of, and how can challenges related to this be handled? This policy brief goes through these questions and gives the knowledge status in this domain a clean-up.

  • Defence and security
  • Terrorism and extremism
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  • Defence and security
  • Terrorism and extremism
Research project
2021 - 2025 (Ongoing)

Cyber security, knowledge and practices (CYKNOW)

CYKNOW will promote better understanding of cyber security, as well as develop novel theoretical and methodological tools for cybersecurity research in particular....

  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Cyber
  • Globalisation
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Governance
  • International organizations
  • The EU
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Cyber
  • Globalisation
  • Diplomacy
  • Foreign policy
  • Europe
  • Governance
  • International organizations
  • The EU
Articles
Articles

Research group for Security and defence

How can we best handle current and future wars and crises? What kind of threats are we likely to face in the years to come? Who are the future actors on the security policy arena? NUPI’s research on security and defence issues seeks to answer these questions.
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • NATO
  • Cyber
  • Intelligence
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Articles
Articles

Research group for Security and defence

How can we best handle current and future wars and crises? What kind of threats are we likely to face in the years to come? Who are the future actors on the security policy arena? NUPI’s research on security and defence issues seeks to answer these questions.
  • Defence
  • Security policy
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • NATO
  • Cyber
  • Intelligence
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Publications
Publications
Report

Risikovurderingsverktøy mot terrorisme og ekstremisme: Erfaringer fra kriminalomsorgen i Nederland, Storbritannia, og Sverige

Spesialiserte verktøy for å vurdere enkeltpersoners risiko for å bli innblandet i terrorisme og voldelig ekstremisme har blitt en sentral del av mange europeiske lands antiterrorarbeid. Denne rapporten gir en oversikt over tre lands ulike beslutninger om å ta i bruk ett av de to mest veletablerte verktøyene brukt i Europa for å vurdere individuell risiko for terrorisme. Både Nederland og Sverige bruker VERA-2R (Violent Extremism Risk Assessment, andre og reviderte versjon) til å vurdere risiko blant innsatte i fengsler, mens Storbritannia benytter ERG22+ (Extremism Risk Guidelines 22+) for det samme formålet. Rapporten ser på hvorfor landene satte i gang med spesialisert vurdering av risiko for terrorisme, belyser de tidlige erfaringer med implementeringen av disse, og peker på noen viktige valg tatt underveis. Rapportens siste del skisserer viktige lærdommer fra hver av de tre landene og analyserer dem i lys av den fortsatt sparsomme forskningslitteraturen på spesialisert terrorismerelatert risikovurdering.

  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Europe
  • Terrorism and extremism
  • Europe
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