Publications
The end of stability - how Burkina Faso fell apart
Not so long-ago Burkina Faso was considered an ‘island’ of stability in a conflict-prone part of Africa. This is not the case anymore as armed insurgencies have caused widespread insecurity. While spill-over effects from the conflict in Mali clearly play a role, we argue that the sudden demise of the rule and regime of Blaise Compaoré also is an important contributing factor. To decipher to what extent regime transition shaped the current state of affairs, we show that what kept Burkina Faso stable and out of the conflicts in the region was a ‘big man deep state’ of formal and informal networks of security provisions. When this ‘deep state’ vanished with the ousting of Compaoré and his allies, local security providers have sought new solutions, and this strengthened the role of self-defence militias but also led them to compete against each other, at times also violently. This provided fertile terrain for jihadi insurgents. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to provide a conceptual understanding of how weak rulers actually rule, how some succeed in preserving their rule for a lengthy period of time, and what can happen when they eventually fall.
The Sheikh versus the president: the making of Imam Dicko as a political Big Man in Mali
In the lead up to the military coup in Mali in August 2020, Imam Dicko Mahmoud Dicko solidified his status as one of the country’s most important power brokers. How did a religious leader achieve this is a country where politics is considered ‘dirty’, the social capital of religious leaders’ rests on being seen as honest and pious, and politics and religion are considered constitutionally separate? Drawing on recent work in African Studies that utilises the classical ‘Big Man’ concept of Marshall Sahlins, this article tracks the political engagement of religious leaders with a particular focus on the political career of Imam Dicko. We document both his failures and how he learned to play politics without tarnishing his image as a pious man of God. We argue that Dicko’s hybrid mix of theology and politics led his followers into new terrains that even the secular opposition could buy in to. In turn, this opens up space for Salafi actors to navigate the straits between resistance and collaboration with the state.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank: from institutional anchors of liberalism to geopolitical rivalry
The IMF and the World Bank are not only amongst the world's most powerful international institutions, but they also represent the most visible institutional anchors of the liberal post-Second World War order. This may be about to change because the IMF and the World Bank are economic institutions and, thereby, bound to reflect global economic realities. And, from an economic perspective, these realities have for quite some time indicated a world that increasingly moves in a multipolar direction. The turn to economic multipolarity has followed in the wake of increased Great Power rivalry between the United States and China. This chapter charts out these developments and how they have affected and IMF and the World Bank, and what consequences this may have for these institutions and the type of global leaderships that they seek to set.
Net-zero or phase out? Stakeholder views on just transitions pathways for oil and gas in Norway
In this policy brief, authors David Jordhus-Lier, Camilla Houeland, Heikki Eidsvoll Holmås, Kacper Szulecki, Peder Ressem Østring and Kendra Dupuy document how policy makers and representatives of businesses and civil society organisations (including trade unions and environmental groups) have outlined pathway scenarios towards net-zero carbon emissions and a phase-out vision for the Norwegian oil and gas industry. The authors have developed these two scenarios participating in a focus group based on a so-called ‘backcasting’ exercise. There is perceived acceptance for the notion of net-zero emissions by 2050 from social actors involved in the Norwegian oil and gas industry. If this goal is to be reached with a science-based approach, however, deep-seated transformations in the global energy system will be needed, as well as concerted efforts by the Norwegian government and from other social actors. Specific targets for the electrification of offshore installations, the roll-out of large-scale offshore wind power and technologies for capturing, using and storing carbon on the Norwegian Continental Shelf are key milestones in this scenario. The main actors required to take responsibility for this pathway are the Norwegian state, in close tripartite dialogue with labour and capital, but also with institutional mechanisms that ensure the participation of local communities and civil society organisations. The net-zero pathway faces a series of obstacles. Among them are popular resistance to new renewable energy projects, increasing electricity prices and the risk this poses to plans for the electrification of offshore installations.
Utfordrende kunnskapssamarbeid: Etiske og sikkerhetsrelaterte utfordringer som forskere og kunnskapsinstitusjoner i Norge møter i internasjonale sa...
This report presents results from a study of ethical- and security-related challenges that researchers and research institutions in Norway face and handle in their international collaborations. The report is in Norwegian only.
Verdens rikeste mann har geopolitiske ambisjoner. Derfor bekymrer Twitter-kjøpet.
Elon Musk's involvement in the Ukraine war and take-over of Twitter raise a number of questions and dilemmas (in Norwegian).
When great powers behave. Mediation lessons from the Cambodia peace process.
This paper examines conflict resolution issues in Cambodia through the lens of mediation as it is practiced today, even as we benefit from the hindsight of a world three decades after the signing of the peace agreement that comprehensively ended the conflict. Extracting lessons from that time, it attempts to illustrate how insights from the end of the Cold War can be edifying as we embark on a dangerous path towards another era.
The challenge of IUU fishing in West Africa and The PotentialTechnology Solutions: An analysis of international cooperationprojects in Ghana and Gu...
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a social, economic and environmental problem. It undermines management and drives the depletion of fish stocks, threatens food security, and drains valuable resources from the economy. In recent decades, efforts have been made to build an international regime that can curb IUU fishing. However, implementing this regime and stemming the tides of IUU fishing remains challenging. At the center of this challenge is the necessity to create capacity in states for the monitoring, control, and surveillance (MCS) of fisheries. Monitoring fisheries means measuring fishing effort characteristics and resource yields continuously. The control of fisheries concerns the establishment of regulations for exploiting resources. Surveillance refers to the measures to secure compliance with regulatory controls.
The War in Ukraine is All About Democracy vs Dictatorship
A dictatorship has just brutally attacked its democratic neighbor. It’s not the first time in history that happens, but there are good reasons to see the war in Ukraine as the first one defining the conflict lines of this century.