Publications
The Role of Ad Hoc Security Initiatives and Enterprise Security Arrangements in the Protection of Civilians in Africa
African-led ad hoc security initiatives (ASIs) and enterprise security arrangements (ESAs) provide flexible, rapid responses to complex threats but remain heavily militarized, weakly integrated into AU frameworks, and poorly aligned with protection of civilians (POC) standards. Their focus on counterinsurgency, reliance on external support, and lack of civilian components often undermine community trust and broader peace processes. While some positive practices have emerged—such as civil-military cooperation in the MNJTF and Rwanda’s outreach in Mozambique—these remain inconsistent. Without systematic integration of AU POC policies, civilian structures, and political strategies, ASIs and ESAs will struggle to deliver sustainable protection outcomes.
Topographies of global-local connections in the Amazon: An analysis of networks of stakeholder participation in international environmental projects
Global governance has long been pushed to localize, incorporating local voices and knowledge to become both more equitable and effective. This has been particularly the case for global environmental governance, where polycentric modes of governance are found to help local actors acquire responsible stewardship and use resources sustainably. However, the selection of which local actors and knowledges will be incorporated in global governance is still dependent on major international development organizations and funding agencies. This article poses the following questions: Which types of actors are incorporated in the global governance of the Amazon and how do they participate therein? To that end, we analyze the network of stakeholders involved in development, execution, or governance of internationally funded projects in the Amazon. Analyzed projects which were part of a major multilateral initiative—the Global Environmental Facility—focusing on those whose main activities are in the Amazon Rainforest biome. The analysis sheds light on the hierarchies and patterns of exclusion in these networks, identifying which types of actors occupy central and peripheral position, and which others are underrepresented. This will expand our understanding of the politics of global local entanglements in the governance of the Amazon.
The organisation and articulation of Nordic peacefulness
Nordic peacefulness has never been a given; on the contrary it has rested on continuous articulation and organisation. While there are distinct differences between the national peace movements, there has also been significant collaboration across borders. This chapter deals with the emergence and development of Nordic peacefulness as idea and organisational fact, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century, with particular emphasis on similarities, differences and interconnectedness.
Proxy Games and Freezing Conflict: Trilateral Identifications, Fear, and Agency in Russia-Georgia Relations Post-Crimea
This article argues that conflicts can be frozen through engagement in mutual trilateral identification games that marginalize lower-level political entities while elevating their danger through identification with threatening third-party Others. Drawing on and broadening the literature on national identity discourse, securitization, and foreign policy, the article theorizes and investigates trilateral identifications and combines two sets of such Self/Other/Other representations as they emerge in official language between two political entities over time. It analyzes relations between Russia and Georgia in the period following the onset of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014, after which Moscow intensified its activities in the post-Soviet space with reference to Western encroachment in its so-called “near abroad.” While Russia re-emphasized Georgia as a Proxy of the threatening “West,” Georgia reduced the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Proxies of Putin’s “expansionist Russia.” These evolving mutual identifications of Self and Other(s) not only rendered policy practices of diplomacy and negotiation less reasonable, but they also contributed to freezing conflict by removing the agency to act and compromise at the imagined negotiating table from the Proxy to the alleged “real” third-party Other.
Ghosting diplomacy: China's silent treatment amid great power competition
If diplomacy is about communication, how does ghosting communicate? China has increasingly used ghosting or silent treatment when practising diplomacy. It has purposefully cut off high-level communication channels with its ‘significant others’ in recent years. When and why does China ghost other states, including its most important partners? How does strategic ghosting fit with the more combative turn in China's ‘wolf warrior diplomacy’ under Xi Jinping? Current scholarship on emotional diplomacy largely focuses on the display of emotions but rarely deals with diplomacy in which the expressions of emotions are covert. This article argues that ghosting diplomacy usually follows a perceived severe violation of core interests; rather than directly displaying emotions like anger, silent treatment is a covert aggression that is punitive by nature. Building on works of emotional diplomacy, security studies and social psychology, this article contributes to the conceptualization and theorization of interstate silent treatment in International Relations and unravels the motives of states to resort to this strategy. Through discourse analysis in a single case-study on China's silent treatment of the United States in the aftermath of former House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in 2022 and the 2023 incident involving suspected surveillance balloons, the research provides a thick description and explanation of how China's ghosting diplomacy unfolded amid heightened geopolitical tensions between the two great powers. As such, it is relevant for both scholars and policy-makers working in foreign policy, in that it sheds light on this covert aggressive form of diplomacy, and on how states can best respond to it.
How Lebanon’s security sector works amidst state collapse
This paper examines how hybrid security orders in Lebanon were renegotiated during shocks, specifically the state collapse from 2019 to 2023 and the regional war in 2023–2024. It employs the framework of Areas of Limited Statehood to analyse the coexistence of formal and informal governance amid the Lebanese state’s challenges. The study contributes to the understanding of governance by focusing on ‘state effects’ – the tangible practices that emerge in such contexts. The analysis reveals that Lebanon’s hybrid security system employed flexible, bottom-up strategies to cope with the economic collapse, such as relying on international security assistance, circumventing regulations, downsizing activities and rent seeking. However, increased corruption risks undermining the stability these solutions initially provided. Additionally, the paper discusses the Lebanese army’s expanded role in the aftermath of the recent conflict with Israel, highlighting its challenges in enforcing UN Security Council Resolution 1701 while maintaining internal cohesion amid rising discontent among Hizbullah supporters.
Does ASEAN climate policy pay sufficient attention to public transportation?
Expansion of public transportation is a climate mitigation measure with many potential co-benefits and positive externalities: reduced congestion, lower air and noise pollution, improved road safety, and poverty alleviation. Most of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) face serious challenges in all these areas. This paper therefore investigates how much emphasis the ten ASEAN member states are putting on public transportation compared to other areas in their climate policies. As the empirical basis for the analysis, a dataset was compiled of all targets and measures in the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) of the ASEAN countries. The analysis shows that only 2.2% of the sectoral mitigation targets and measures in the ASEAN NDCs relate to public transportation, and six of the ten NDCs have no public transportation targets or measures. These numbers are surprisingly low considering the challenges related to transportation in the ASEAN megacities and the numerous co-benefits of resolving them. Using the Avoid-Shift-Improve framework for sustainable transportation, the study finds that almost three fourths of the transportation targets and measures in the NDCs belong to the “Improve” category. This indicates that there is potential to further develop policies to “Shift” travel to public transportation and integrate them into the next round of NDC updates.
Utenriks- og sikkerhetspolitiske holdninger i valgåret 2025
Verden er i rask endring og de siste månedenes nyhetsbilde har vært særlig preget av frykt, usikkerhet og konflikt. Russlands angrepskrig mot Ukraina føres fremdeles med stor styrke og Norge har i 2025 økt støtten til Ukraina betraktelig. Israels krig mot Hamas fortsetter og fikk våren 2025 en ny dimensjon da landet også angrep Iran. Norge har overfor Israel vært et av de mest åpent kritiske landene i Europa. Gjennom vinteren har Norges viktigste allierte, USA, sådd stor tvil og skapt usikkerhet knyttet til samholdet i det transatlantiske sikkerhetsfellesskapet. I tillegg har Donald Trump satt i gang et handelspolitisk tollkappløp som stadig er en kime til bekymring i Norge, Europa, og verden ellers. Mot dette bakteppet, og gitt at det gjennomføres stortingsvalg den 8. september i år, er det igjen tid for å ta tempen på de utenrikspolitiske holdningene i Norge. Derfor har NUPI gjennomført en opinionsundersøkelse der befolkningen har fått ta stilling til en rekke saker som preger internasjonal politikk. Vi kalte rapporten fra 2024 for «status-quo folket i en internasjonal brytningstid» fordi tross de store endringene i verdenspolitikken, var det lite endring å spore i den norske befolkningens utenrikspolitiske holdninger. Det inntrykket står seg også i denne rapporten, men med ett stort unntak: det er en betydelig endring i nordmenns holdning til samarbeidet med USA. Før valget i 2021 og sist i 2024-undersøkelsen mente opp mot halvparten av befolkningen at Norge burde samarbeide mer med USA mens omtrent en fjerdedel ønsket at Norge burde samarbeide mindre med USA. Dette forholdet har nå blitt snudd på hodet: kun 25 % ønsker mer samarbeid med USA, mens 42 % av befolkningen mener at Norge burde samarbeide mindre med USA. Den endrede holdningen til samarbeid med USA ser vi også spor av i andre deler av materialet, befolkningen virker generelt mer skeptisk til å følge USA-ledet politikk. I denne undersøkelsen har vi også inkludert to nye spørsmål for å måle om det er et stemningsskifte på gang i velgernes syn på utenrikspolitikken. I podkaster og på voksende alternative plattformer har det blitt hevdet at den såkalte konsensusen i norsk utenrikspolitikk står for fall fordi befolkningen er i utakt med myndighetene. Våre funn indikerer ikke noe slik stemningsskifte. De politiske skillelinjene i nordmenns syn på utenrikspolitikken er kjente, og det er ingen indikasjoner på grunnleggende konflikt eller mistillit knyttet til Norges utenriks- og sikkerhetspolitikk. De holdningene og holdningsendringene vi ser er som forventet ut fra tidligere NUPI-undersøkelser og opinionsundersøkelser ellers.
Anarchy is What the Balance of Power Made of It: Two Core Concepts and The Public/Private Distinction in International Relations
In this article, Morten Skumsrud Andersen questions a familiar assumption in International Relations (IR): that the balance of power and anarchy are mutually reinforcing concepts. He argues instead that this relationship is neither natural nor necessary. Modern understandings of anarchy do not reflect timeless features of international politics, but are historically contingent outcomes of changes in how the balance of power concept itself has been understood and deployed. Drawing on conceptual history, Andersen traces how the balance of power transitioned from a principle embodying Europe’s public interest in the eighteenth century to an expression of national rivalry and competitive self-interest in the nineteenth. This transformation was underpinned by a broader redefinition of the public/private distinction, which enabled states to be imagined as atomistic units operating in decentralized, market-like competition—what came to be seen as anarchy. By recovering the practical history of the balance of power, Andersen reinterprets the genealogy of two foundational IR concepts and call for greater reflexivity about the analytical tools through which international relations are theorized.
What can a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security do for Colombia?
Colombia launched its first 1325 NAP in November 2024, after a participatory process involving more than 1,500 women from different backgrounds across the country. Colombian women’s organizations are divided on the usefulness of the NAP: Some argue it can dilute attention from the 2016 peace agreement. Others believe it can have a positive effect on the implementation of the gender provisions of the agreement, which is lagging. The political context of increasing levels of conflict, failing peace negotiations and upcoming elections poses further challenges to the implementation of the 1325 NAP. The international community can support the implementation of the 1325 NAP through coordination-support, monitoring, awareness raising, and with technical expertise. This policy brief outlines the process of developing the NAP, the current political context in which the NAP is going to be implemented, and what challenges exist for its implementation.