Norway’s work on climate, peace, and security in the UN Security Council
Climate security was one of Norway’s priority areas during its period as an elected member of the UN Security Council (2021–2022). What did Norway...
NUPIpodden #18: USA hjemme og ute i verden
Høstens valg blir kun et slag i den større kampen om den amerikanske sjela. Hva USA skal representere – hjemme og ute i verden – er ikke avgjort....
NUPIpodden #19: Den gryende atompopulismen i Asia
Det er i ferd med å skje noe i Øst-Asia. Kinesiske kommentatorer vil ruste opp sine kjernevåpenarsenal. Samtidig øker støtten blant befolkningen i...
NUPIpodden #20: Folkeavstemning om Putins fremtid
Russiske myndigheter gjennomfører en folkeavstemning om en lang rekke grunnlovsendringer, som kan åpne for at Vladimir Putin kan sitte som preside...
NUPIpodden #21: Hva er egentlig utenrikspolitikk?
Når begynte vi å snakke om utenrikspolitikk? Og hvorfor? Og spiller det noen rolle at makthaverne begynte å kalle noe for «utenrikspolitikk»? I de...
NUPIpodden #22: Hva skjer i Nagorno-Karabakh?
Selv om Nagorno-Karabakh ikke er en internasjonalt anerkjent stat, har denne enklaven både egen nasjonalsang, eget flagg og egen president. Den si...
NUPI-podden #23: Hva mener norske velgere om utenrikspolitikk?
13. september skal befolkningen velge hvem som skal styre landet de neste fire åra. Men hva slags tillit har velgerne egentlig til de ulike partie...
NUPIpodden #24: Et styrt valg i Russland
Ikke overraskende kunne det regjerende partiet i Russland, Det forente Russland – også omtalt som Putins parti, erklære valgseier 20. september 20...
Revisiting the Case of Ethnography and International Relations
This article revisits the debate on the role of ethnography in International Relations. It primarily does this by elucidating three points of tension in the literature on ethnography in International Relations. Firstly, it tackles the challenges related to ‘getting on’ with ethnography after the reflexive methodological developments that have taken place within anthropology since the 1980s. Secondly, it investigates how to overcome certain matters of scale and how to conceptualise the ‘international’ methodologically, or more specifically, ethnographically. When looking at issues that somehow exist and operate on the international scale, the ethnographic task of immersion in local scenes does sometimes seem like an ill-suited approach. However, I argue, this problematisation is dependent on a certain methodological understanding of what the international is. I attempt to formulate an alternative methodological approach that takes seriously the idea that international relations always can be accessed locally. This paper suggests that one of the main solutions to the obstacle of scale is methodologically abandon the imaginary of totalities as a higher level. In this way, ethnography can enable important understandings of social relations that exist across scales of local and global.
The EU’s international cyber and digital engagements
Digital transformation is a key priority for the European Union. It drives economic growth and enables societal development. However, the EU’s leadership in digital matters and its capacity to deliver are not universally recognised. There is skepticism about the EU’s leadership and its vision for a human-centric digital future - one that places human rights and the rule of law at the center of technological innovation and digital transformation. Simultaneously, the EU’s global influence is limited by its own ability to deliver certain critical capabilities in the digital and cyber domains. While expectations for the EU’s role have grown, cyber and digital policies are governed primarily by an intergovernmental method. This policy brief looks at how the EU frames and implements its international cyber and digital engagements with third countries. What drives the cooperation and and what are the specific tools and mechanisms deployed by the EU? The policy brief also considers implications for Norway.