From ability to defend to willingness to defend – What can Norway learn from Ukraine?
What does it take to create a willingness to defend your country? ...
Breakfast seminar: Space diplomacy and Transatlantic Relations
Is the space domain increasingly characterised by militarisation – or are we witnessing the emergence of a new realm of transatlantic cooperation based on diplomacy?
Breakfast seminar: Why America Needs Europe
Is the Western alliance drifting apart, or is it growing stronger?
De fem viktigste utenrikssakene i 2025?
Når vi snakker om valgkamp, er det ofte innenrikssaker som dominerer – formuesskatt, barnehagepriser eller politi. Men i 2025 er utenrikspolitikke...
Putin's technocrats: Loyal experts in wartime Russia
Why does Putin continue to rely on Western-trained technocrats in wartime – and what does this reveal about the strength and fragility of his regime?
Is the era of cooperation coming to an end?
International cooperation and the rules-based order as we know it is now at stake. The inauguration of Donald Trump in his second presidential ter...
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.
Foreign Investments and National Security: The Case of Russia
Foreign investments have played pivotal roles in China’s overall economic growth over the last several decades, but for different reasons and with varying intensity. In this chapter, we focus mainly on inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and perform three tasks. First, we provide an overview of the foreign investments that have entered China—since economic and market liberalization and internationalization reforms started in the late 1970s. Second, we consider inward FDI with regards to sectoral distribution, where most investments come from, and which sectors are most popular among foreign investors. Third, we discuss Chinese FDI policies and regulations with focus on motivations and seek to explain that although China has changed its regulatory measures considerably over the years, it has remained relatively restrictive and selective in terms of which sectors and types of investments have been, and are still, open for foreign investment.