Peace, crisis and conflict

India in the Multilateral System: UN, Bretton Woods and Club Governance

Nordisk drejning i nordområderne

Engelsk: In the Norwegian Government’s new High North strategy, the Nordic region has a more prominent role. What does that mean – for the High North and for Nordic cooperation?

Handlingsrom og norsk støtte til kvinner, fred og sikkerhet i Afghanistan og Sudan

This article examines how Norwegian support for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda in Afghanistan and Sudan is affected by factors such as war, humanitarian crises and democratic decline. In the article, the authors look more closely at the factors that influence the support provided, and how the relevant actors respond to changes in the framework conditions. The authors find that the work is affected by changes in the political space, including armed conflict and democratic decline. The situation is somewhat different in the two countries, but in both cases, the absence of official cooperation with the countries’ central authorities requires Norway to take a more flexible approach to the WPS work and to direct more of its efforts toward the local level. In both Sudan and Afghanistan, there are local variations in terms of humanitarian access and willingness to work with the WPS agenda. In other words, there is room for Norway to continue its work to support the implementation the WPS agenda in these contexts, although in countries affected by crisis and conflict this often must be done differently than in countries where Norway has an embassy or official cooperation with the local authorities.

Winning the Peace: The Role of Agonistic and Adaptive Peacebuilding in Sustaining Social Cohesion in Ukraine

This article analyzes the role that Ukrainian peacebuilders play in contributing to strengthening social cohesion in war-time Ukraine. It studies an initiative to facilitate dialogue between two jurisdictions of the Orthodox church to develop new insights into the role that dialogue facilitation and peace mediation can play as a form of internal peacebuilding. We analyze and assess these dialogue practices in Ukraine from the perspective of two theoretical approaches, namely agonistic peace and adaptive peacebuilding. The efforts of Ukrainian dialogue facilitators and peacebuilders have received little international attention and support, despite the fact that ambitious plans are underway to help rebuild Ukraine, and significant amounts of money are being mobilized for this effort. Our hope is that these efforts will involve the Ukrainian peacebuilding community in their work in order to ensure that their reconstruction efforts are conflict sensitive and peace positive.

Transformative securitization: Rethinking the Copenhagen School in light of COVID-19, climate change, and the war in Ukraine

This article advances securitization theory by introducing the concept of transformative securitization, in which crises are not only framed as existential threats but also as catalysts for reconstituting political orders. Drawing on the Copenhagen School and Hannah Arendt’s notion of natality, the article distinguishes transformative securitization from conservative forms that aim to preserve the status quo. It conceptualizes transformative securitization through three dimensions: agency (bottom-up and participatory), procedure (disruptive yet potentially democratizing), and outcome (yielding durable institutional or normative change). Through empirical illustrations from Denmark and Norway’s responses to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and climate change, the article shows how securitization can both constrain and enable democratic transformation. It finds that while some responses reinforce executive power and narrow deliberative space, others—especially in climate politics—reflect participatory and future-oriented securitizing moves that can reconfigure societal sectors or entire polities. Climate change emerges as a paradigmatic case of transformative securitization, where intergenerational justice and systemic change are driven by civic agency. By bridging crisis and political founding, the concept refines securitization theory’s understanding of extraordinary politics and offers new tools to analyze the democratic potential and pitfalls of security responses in an era of overlapping, urgent predicaments.

Climate, Peace and Security Fact Sheet: Abyei

The Abyei Administrative Area, a disputed territory that lies between Sudan and South Sudan, faces complex interconnected challenges. Communities in Abyei largely depend on climate-sensitive livelihoods such as cattle herding, farming and seasonal migration. Increased flooding and prolonged dry spells in recent years have reduced crop yields, affected livestock rearing and displaced households, which has deepened existing livelihood and security challenges. Limited basic services and poor infrastructure, combined with weak governance, constrain the coping capacities of local communities and increase their need for humanitarian assistance. Yet funding cuts and insecurity have led some humanitarian organizations to scale back operations, while the civil war in Sudan continues to increase humanitarian needs in Abyei. The territory’s disputed status further impedes long-term development planning to address interconnected challenges, including climate-related security risks.