Multiple new research projects for NUPI

The three projects span a wide range of NUPI’s expertise, from climate and conflict to technology, warfare, and space.

While the project “MENA Water & Peace” is funded under the Research Council of Norway’s (RCN) thematic call on Peace and Reconciliation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), the two others, “From Lessons to Strategic Choices” and “Norway and Space”, are funded by the Ministry of Defence through its research programme on security and defence policy.

“This is highly relevant and strategically important project funding for NUPI, and we very much look forward to seing these projects start up next year. We are also very pleased that our researchers are succeeding in the increasingly tough competition for research funding from both the RCN and the ministries.", says research director Kristin Haugevik.

More about the projects

Waters of Reconciliation: Local Governance and Environmental Peacebuilding in the Lower Nile and Yarmouk Basins (MENA Water & Peace)

Team: Cedric de Coning (NUPI), Thor Olav Iversen (NUPI), Ingvild Brox Brodtkorb (NUPI), Tine Gade (NUPI), Erik Skare (NUPI), Minoo Koefoed (Enköping University) and partners in Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Sudan.

Project period: 2026-2029

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is experiencing one of the most acute water crises globally. In this project, NUPI will work with researchers in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, and Syria, as well as closely with local communities, to explore how countries that share renewable freshwater resources can better manage water-related risks and prevent conflict.

The project will examine different ways of governing shared water resources across borders, comparing what has worked well and what has not. It focuses on Yarmouk River Basin in the Jordan–Syria borderlands, and the Eastern Nile Basin in the Egypt–Sudan borderlands.

NUPI will also translate the knowledge into practical inputs for Norwegian practitioners. 

“If Norway’s peace and reconciliation, development and environmental policies and programmes in the MENA region is going to be effective, we need to be informed by an advanced understanding of the complex dynamics driving these climate-population-conflictstressors,” says research professor Cedric de Coning, who will have the role of project leader. 

From Lessons to Strategic Choices: Implications for long-term defence planning

Team: Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud (NUPI), Claudia Emilie Aanonsen (NUPI), Rita Augestad Knudsen (NUPI) and Dan Öberg (Försvarshögskolan/Swedish Defence University)

Project period: 2026-2028

This project will study how militaries identify and draw strategic lessons, and how this influences and shapes planning in the defence sector. The project will explore the MoD’s thematic focus on strategic choices and political, military, and technological lessons from the war in Ukraine, and the aim to show how these learning processes shape strategic choices and ultimately long-term defence planning.

Together with our swedish partner we will zoom in on how Norway and Sweden and its alliances in NATO and EU navigate a complex relationship between military needs, industrial capacity, and emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs). This is especially important in a world increasingly marked by great power rivalry, destabilization and the use of hybrid instruments. The project ultimately seeks to convey a non-linear, relational way of understanding strategic learning and choices and their implications for defence innovation and capability development. 

We hope to offer tools for the Norwegian Armed Forces and the defence sector to ‘learn the right way’ in order to navigate an increasingly complex security landscape.

"We are excited to receive funding for this project. The intention is to upend the traditional way to studying so-called military strategic lessons. Rather than asking what lessons should be drawn from ongoing wars and technological developments, this project investigates how such lessons are drawn and how such learning processes shape strategic choices and long-term defence planning," says project leader, Erik Reichborn-Kjennerud.

Norway and Space: Strategic Positioning, Allied Cooperation, and Exposure (NSPACE)

Team: Niels Nagelhus Schia (NUPI), Marianne Riddervold (ARENA, University of Oslo), and Dorthea Gradek (NUPI)

Project period: 2026–2028

Space has become critical for both military operations and essential civilian services. At the same time, great-power rivalry is intensifying, and competition over positioning in space is increasingly shaping geopolitics on Earth. Norway possesses capabilities and geographical advantages that make it strategically important to its allies, but these same factors also increase the country’s exposure.

NSPACE will analyse how Norway can best navigate a more competitive space environment, with particular attention to geopolitics, the High North, and Norwegian vulnerabilities and strategic opportunities. The project will provide in-depth insight into a domain of growing importance for both military and civilian actors and will generate knowledge directly relevant to Norwegian authorities’ strategic assessments in the years ahead.

“Space is no longer a distant technological domain. Space infrastructure and security policy are now intertwined in ways we only partly understand. It has become an integral part of national security and international politics. Norway holds a unique position in the North that offers opportunities but also makes us vulnerable. For research, this raises new questions about how power, cooperation, and interdependence are shaped. With NSPACE, we aim to help fill important knowledge gaps in our understanding of these processes,” says project leader Niels Nagelhus Schia.