Safeguarding the WPS Agenda across Africa amid a Changing Global Order
Over the past 25 years, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has gained increasing prominence at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). UNSC engagement has focused primarily on the protection of women and girls – rather than on prevention or effective participation. Further, implementation of the agenda has been inconsistent and uneven across mandates. More recently, geopolitical tensions, a rise in authoritarian politics and escalating anti-feminist sentiment have further undermined the WPS agenda – often subordinating it to domestic political dynamics. This policy brief examines the state of the WPS agenda against a backdrop of dwindling donor funding and shifting global priorities. It reflects on key achievements by local women’s networks across Africa and considers how gains may be sustained and the agenda advanced amid new political and financial constraints. It argues that promoting the WPS agenda in an increasingly volatile political order requires a multifaceted approach that addresses the challenges posed by global conflict, inequality and authoritarian resurgence. This includes strengthening existing frameworks, expanding the scope of the agenda to address a broader range of issues and ensuring that women’s voices are meaningfully included in decision-making related to peace and security.
Reacting to a geopolitical setback: NATO expansion in Sweden and Finland through the lens of Russian geopolitical culture
The accession of Sweden and Finland to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is typically seen as a serious geopolitical setback for Russia, the opposite of its goals to limit the alliance’s spread eastwards. In contrast to Moscow’s stances on Ukraine and Georgia, however, its reaction to NATO’s Nordic expansion is more ambiguous. This article uses the framework of critical geopolitics to analyse several layers of Russia’s discursive reaction: practical, formal, and popular. This study finds that much of the popular geopolitics continues pre-2022 trends, presenting a securitised and nationalistic construction of NATO as a threatening ‘Other’. On the other hand, more moderate and pragmatic assessments in formal geopolitics balance against bellicosity and highlight the agency of the Nordic states, suggesting Russia may return to peaceful cooperation. In practical geopolitics, there is a gap between discourse and practice. Alongside more negative official discourse on NATO Nordic expansion, there was also reduced Russian military activity and an avoidance of provocative steps. These two faces – realism and pragmatism as opposed to securitised and nationalistic threat deterrence – reflect the structure of Russian geopolitical culture when it is applied to the North and Nordic NATO expansion.
Reacting to a geopolitical setback: NATO expansion in Sweden and Finland through the lens of Russian geopolitical culture”
The accession of Sweden and Finland to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is typically seen as a serious geopolitical setback for Russia, the opposite of its goals to limit the alliance’s spread eastwards. In contrast to Moscow’s stances on Ukraine and Georgia, however, its reaction to NATO’s Nordic expansion is more ambiguous. This article uses the framework of critical geopolitics to analyse several layers of Russia’s discursive reaction: practical, formal, and popular. This study finds that much of the popular geopolitics continues pre-2022 trends, presenting a securitised and nationalistic construction of NATO as a threatening ‘Other’. On the other hand, more moderate and pragmatic assessments in formal geopolitics balance against bellicosity and highlight the agency of the Nordic states, suggesting Russia may return to peaceful cooperation. In practical geopolitics, there is a gap between discourse and practice. Alongside more negative official discourse on NATO Nordic expansion, there was also reduced Russian military activity and an avoidance of provocative steps. These two faces – realism and pragmatism as opposed to securitised and nationalistic threat deterrence – reflect the structure of Russian geopolitical culture when it is applied to the North and Nordic NATO expansion.
Integrating ad hoc coalitions in international conflict management
While United Nations peacekeeping has been in decline since 2014, ad hoc coalitions have become prominent in international conflict management. We argue that these two trends have changed the field of international conflict management into what we call ‘conflict management à la carte’. Contemporary examples of ad hoc coalitions in international conflict management are the Multinational Joint Task Force, fighting the Boko Haram insurgency in the Lake Chad region, but also maritime missions such as the US-led Coalition Task Force Sentinel in the Gulf region and the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support mission in Haiti. After analysing the implications of this turn for international conflict management, we sketch out three types of differentiated ad hoc coalition integration in international conflict management and discuss examples. We then provide recommendations for how to synergize and integrate ad hoc coalitions with UN-led and regional organization-led initiatives, to enhance mission effectiveness and preserve a robust and legitimate toolbox of institutional responses for international conflict management. In conclusion, we argue that as the UN reorients itself towards becoming a service provider through adopting a modular approach, it should continue to invest in interorganizational cooperation on issues of logistics, financial and human rights accountability, including with ad hoc coalitions.
The Institutional Dynamics of Global Governance in Hard Times: Innovation or Decline?
In the introduction to this roundtable, we argue that global governance currently faces hard times because it is affected by a set of significant developments revolving around the changing distribution of state power, the rise of nationalist populism, and the frequent occurrence of transnational crises, while seeking to facilitate collective action on complex cooperation problems. Against this backdrop, the essay identifies two major institutional dynamics of global governance in hard times: first, the drift of formal intergovernmental organizations (FIGOs) that is caused by them being gridlocked in a period of significant changes in their social, (geo)political, economic, and technological environment. Second, the proliferation of various types of low-cost institutions. To help us think systematically about how these two interrelated institutional dynamics affect global governance, the essay develops the innovation thesis and the decline thesis. The “innovation thesis” suggests that by transitioning from a rather exclusive and hierarchical system revolving around FIGOs into a more inclusive and heterarchical system revolving around institutional diversity, global governance is currently being adapted to its new environment. The “decline thesis,” by contrast, argues that the two institutional dynamics undermine rules-based multilateralism and may lead to a shift back toward traditional (great) power politics that does not respect institutional constraints.
Fellesskap i fare
Norge og Europa i en ny verdensorden. Hvordan skal det gå med Europa når måten verden virker på endrer seg totalt? De siste årene har europeiske politikere hatt hendene fulle med å samle støtte til Ukrainas krig mot Russland. I mellomtiden går stormaktene rundt oss bort fra samarbeid, og mot rivalisering og konkurranse. For EU er det heller ikke mye hjelp å hente fra Donald Trumps USA. Den liberale orden som har bidratt til dyp fred i Europa forvitrer for hver dag som går, også støttet av reaksjonære krefter innad. Alt dette fører til at Europa og EU nå konsentrerer seg mest om ett politisk spørsmål: sikkerhet. Men kan EU bli en fullstendig sikkerhetsorientert union og samtidig forsvare sine grunnleggende verdier – demokrati, menneskeverd og frihet? Hvordan kan disse verdiene stå seg i møte med all verdens sikkerhetsutfordringer? Og hvordan kan Norge som et europeisk land utenfor EU manøvrere i den nye verden som vokser frem? Øyvind Svendsen, seniorforsker ved Norsk Utenrikspolitisk Institutt (NUPI), skildrer noen av vår tids største utfordringer på en lett og konsis måte.
Breakfast seminar: Russia and global nuclear risks: Weapons, civilian facilities, and proliferation
How can open and transparent scientific analysis inform policy debates on the challenges nuclear risks bring?
Peace Operations Review Week
Peace Operations Review Week in New York brings together global experts and practitioners to explore the future of peace operations and contribute to the UN’s Review on the Future of All Forms of Peace Operations.
The Neighbourhood: Europe’s enlargement moment
Mark Leonard launches a new podcast series with Lykke Friis to explore the future of EU enlargement and Denmark’s role in shaping it. The episode...