Earth to Orbit - Building Bridges in Space (DISCOVER)
DISCOVER analyses the key drivers of cooperation and conflict in space governance, highlighting the importance of international collaboration for global security and the stability of m...
How to Support Ukraine: Peace Will Require Ukrainian Strength
A revived Western effort to finance Ukraine’s war effort will send a clear message to Russia of the West’s commitment. It may also help revitalize the West’s defense industrial production and leave U.S. and European security on firmer footing. This will be costly, but it is a cost that both the United States and Europe can easily manage. Furthermore, continued Western support should go hand in hand with a renewed effort to address its critical manpower shortages. The war and the world may be currently turning against Ukraine. But this is not a permanent condition. Russia is also suffering greatly, experiencing massive battlefield losses and economic strain. Europe, the United States, and Ukraine can turn the tide of the conflict back in Kyiv’s direction. Doing so is likely the only way to bring Russia to the negotiating table.
Moral- og realpolitikk i en ny verden
The scenes from the White House on Saturday unsettled even the most seasoned analysts. The anticipated signing of the mineral agreement—which was expected to provide Ukraine with an indirect American security guarantee that the country desperately needs—did not take place. Instead, the public witnessed an open dispute between President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and President Volodymyr Zelensky. The deal that may now emerge in the aftermath of these events is unlikely to be the one Ukraine had hoped for. Subsequent commentary on social media has largely focused on identifying who initiated the quarrel. These responses have tended to fall into two polarized camps, each assigning clear blame to one side—either Zelensky or Trump and Vance
From combatants and war supporters to peacemakers? Women’s participation in political violence and political transitions (Gendered Transitions)
In the “Gendered Transitions”-project, the researchers will study how women’s participation in political violence translates into their participation in peace processes. ...
Hierarchy
The concept of hierarchy refers to systems of vertical differentiation. Its broad meaning has many cognates both in social theory and in common parlance, such as rank, order, power, authority, status, and stratification. In International Relations (IR), the term is most famous for its opposition to a discipline-defining term: anarchy. Current uses of the term have been employed to challenge the states-under-anarchy framework as the starting point for IR theorizing. Explicit conceptualizations hierarchy in world politics define the term as either narrowly as relationships of authority relations that challenge state sovereignty or more broadly as the deeper asymmetrical structures that constitute those relations. Although the study of hierarchy (implicitly) is hardly new in IR, the novel push for studying it explicitly has sparked a wider dialogue about dynamics of vertical differentiation and renewed our disciplinary attention to the multiple inequalities that constitute world politics.
Explaining changes in women’s representation in peace processes: The adoption of a gender quota in the Agreement Monitoring Committee in Mali
How can we explain changes in women’s representation in peace processes? Based on an analysis of interviews with key actors in the peace process and documents, this article examines the events, factors and actors that contributed to the introduction of a gender quota in the Malian peace process (2015-2023). After a peace agreement was signed in 2015 between the Malian government and two rebel groups, several mechanisms and committees were established to contribute to its implementation. An Agreement Monitoring Committee was also established, where representatives of the parties were to meet regularly to make decisions related to the overall implementation of the agreement. Until November 2020, the parties’ delegates to this committee consisted exclusively of men. Since the outbreak of conflict in 2012, through ceasefire negotiations, peace negotiations, and the implementation of the peace agreement, Malian women’s groups have been fighting for increased participation. But such demands were usually met with resistance from the parties to the peace process. This changed in 2020, however, when the same parties adopted a 30% gender quota in the monitoring committee. The article therefore addresses a central issue surrounding women's participation in peace processes: How can important actors be persuaded to change their minds, and move from opposing women's participation to adopting a 30% gender quota? The analysis finds that changes in women's representation are facilitated by critical actors who initiate or stimulate others to support and/or promote women-friendly reforms. Furthermore, two enabling conditions must be present: On the one hand, international gender equality norms, together with international pressure to promote these norms; and on the other hand, women’s mobilization, including women’s activists’ use of international frameworks to advocate for gender-based reforms. The analysis shows how these enabling conditions were present in the Malian case. Furthermore, the article analyses and shows how critical actors who supported the peace process contributed to “political accumulation”, that is, the gradual building of political recognition for the issue of women’s inclusion over time. This happened through a combination of increases in the number of actors and initiatives supporting and promoting women’s inclusion and the repeated exposure and learning among the parties and other key actors. Critical actors also collaborated with and supported Malian women’s organizations and women leaders engaged in activism for women’s increased representation in the peace process. Additionally, critical actors actively worked to remove counter-arguments and obstacles – for example, through funding and capacity-building. This contributed to a more enabling environment in which the benefits of supporting the gender quota began to outweigh the costs of opposing it. The article concludes that the combined efforts of critical actors, which occurred in a context of international gender equality norms and women’s mobilization, contributed to changes in the behaviour of key actors and made possible the adoption of a gender quota in the monitoring committee.
Failed International Interventions and the Making of New Social Contracts in Mali
Mali's 2020 coup brought Colonel Assimi Goïta to power. Despite security crises and economic struggles, Goïta enjoys strong public support, substantially exceeding that enjoyed by the ousted, democratically elected leader. In exploring this paradox, this article argues that Goïta has crafted a new social contract based not on public services but on a strongman narrative, portraying himself as Mali's defender. The regime has leveraged dissatisfaction with international interventions to frame Goïta as an `exceptional man' in `exceptional times', in ways that resonate with Malian myths and traditions. This has important ramifications for debates about African agencies and international interventions.