Forsker
John Karlsrud
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Sammendrag
John Karlsrud (PhD) er forsker 1 i Forskningsgruppen for fred, konflikt og utvikling ved NUPI, hvor han jobber med spørsmål relatert til koalisjoners rolle i internasjonal sikkerhet, FNs fredsbevarende styrker og andre mer generelle spørsmål relatert til endring i global styring.
Karlsrud tok doktorgraden ved University of Warwick, og har vært gjesteforsker i regi av Fulbright-programmet Center on International Cooperation ved New York University, og senest ved European University Institute i Firenze. Han har arbeidet i Bosnia og Hercegovina, Tsjad, Palestina (Vestbredden), Norge og USA, og har gjort feltarbeid og hatt kortere oppdrag i Haiti, Irak, Liberia, Mosambik, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Sør-Sudan og Ukraina.
Ekspertise
Utdanning
2010-2013 Ph.D., Politics and Internationals Studies, University of Warwick. Tittel på avhandlingen: Linked Ecologies and Norm Change in United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.
2005 Master, Peace and Conflict Studies / International Affairs med Distinction. Master fra Institute for Graduate Studies in International Affairs, Australian National University og PRIO.
Arbeidserfaring
2010- Seniorforsker på NUPI, leder for Forskningsgruppen for fred, konflikt og utvikling fra oktober 2020.
2015 External Associate, Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, University of Warwick September-Desember.
2015 Fulbright gjesteforsker, Center on International Cooperation, New York University Januar-April.
2008-2010 Spesialassistent til generalsekretærens spesialrepresentant, FNs oppdrag i Tsjad og Den sentralafrikanske republikk (MINURCAT), Tsjad.
2006-2008 Analytiker, policy og strategi, Strategic and Regional Initiatives Unit (SRIU), Regional Bureau for Africa (RBA), UNDP New York HQ.
2005-2006 Forsker og assistent for direktøren, Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies (AIS).
2002-2003 Liaison- og operasjonsoffiser for NATO i Bosnia og Hercegovina (BiH), sekondert fra det Norske Forsvaret.
Aktivitet
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Tøm alle filtrePredictive peacekeeping: opportunities and challenges
The time is ripe for the development of a UN early warning tool that estimates the likelihood of instability, intercommunity clashes and armed violence in areas in which UN peacekeepers operate. However, this development would require at least some initial collaboration between the UN and the scientific world. Scientists have developed advanced analytical tools to predict armed violence in recent years.1 Yet, these conflict prediction tools still cannot be utilized to their full potential because of a relatively poor quality of conflict data. It is precisely in the area of high quality conflict data that the UN has a strong comparative advantage,2 especially now that the Situational Awareness Geospatial Enterprise (SAGE) system is being implemented. SAGE is a web-based database system that allows UN military, police and civilians in UN peace operations (both UN peacekeeping operations and special political missions) to log incidents, events and activities. The development of SAGE has made it possible to leverage state of the art methodological tools to enable predictive peacekeeping. This policy brief provides background to the recent turn to using data in UN peacekeeping missions, suggestions for what an early warning tool based on SAGE data would look like, and discusses the practical and ethical challenges of such an early warning tool.
From Liberal Peacebuilding to Stabilization and Counterterrorism
Since the end of the Cold War, international interventions have increasingly been deployed to deal with internal conflict. Liberal peacebuilding has been a guiding concept for many of these interventions, in particular those deployed by the UN. This article argues that liberal peacebuilding is waning in importance, both as a guiding concept and in practice. After long engagements in Afghanistan and the enduring effects of the financial crisis, Western states are shifting their strategy from liberal peacebuilding to stabilization and counterterrorism. In Africa, regional ad hoc coalitions set up to fight terrorists and other armed groups are on the rise, and progressively included in UN peacekeeping operations. To examine these shifts more closely, the article focuses on the crisis in Mali since 2012 and the growing Western security presence in neighbouring Niger. The article concludes that the turn from liberal peacebuilding to stabilization and counterterrorism is likely to be counterproductive, as it will lead to more oppressive governments and more disillusioned people joining the ranks of opposition and terrorist groups, as well as undermine the UN in general and UN peace operations in particular.
Are UN Peacekeeping Missions Moving Toward "Chapter Seven and a Half Operations"?
The combined effect of the inclusion of regional ad hoc coalitions with a strong orientation towards counter-insurgency and counterterrorism is the creation of a new type of “Chapter Seven and a Half” operations. Enforcement action is delegated to regional ad hoc coalitions that have a stronger interest in the conflict and who are more willing to put troops in the line of fire. However, such a development risks undermining the legitimacy of the UN, increasing attacks against peacekeeping operations as well as other parts of the UN, and eroding its role in the mediation and humanitarian domains.
The UN at War: Peace Operations in a New Era
This book is a critical political and institutional reflection on UN peace operations. It provides constructive suggestions as to how the UN and the international system can evolve to remain relevant and tackle the peace and security challenges of the 21st century, without abandoning the principles that the UN was founded upon and on which the legitimacy of UN peace operations rests. The author analyses the evolving politics on UN peace operations of the five veto powers of the UN Security Council, as well as major troop-contributing countries and western powers. He investigates the move towards peace enforcement and counter-terrorism, and what consequences this development may have for the UN. Karlsrud issues a challenge to practitioners and politicians to make sure that the calls for reform are anchored in a desire to improve the lives of people suffering in conflicts on the ground—and not spurred by intra-organizational turf battles or solely the narrow self-interests of member states. Finally, he asks how the UN can adapt its practices to become more field- and people-centered, in line with its core, primary commitments of protecting and serving people in need. “An excellent resource for researchers, policy-makers, practitioners and students, this work provides a very useful analysis on the past, present and future of peace missions, as well as how they have and could face the challenges of today’s world.” —Séverine Autesserre, Associate Professor, Barnard College,Columbia University, USA “The international community and the new Secretary-General will have a chance to initiate meaningful, transformative reforms in the way the United Nations addresses social, political and security challenges; the road map is provided by John Karlsrud, highly recommended to all international peace and security academics and practitioners.” —José Ramos-Horta, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former President and Prime Minister of Timor Leste “This is the most current, up-to-date assessment of UN Peace Operations available. A must-read for both analysts and practitioners of peacekeeping.” —Lise Morjé Howard, Georgetown University, USA
Between self-interest and solidarity: Norway’s return to UN peacekeeping?
This edited volume provides a comprehensive analysis of European approaches to United Nations peacekeeping by assessing past practice, present obstacles and future potentials related to nine core European countries’ contributions to blue helmet operations. By providing in-depth case studies on Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom, this book offers an evaluation of European approaches as well as a wide range of facilitating and constraining factors related to the above mentioned countries’ future involvement in UN peacekeeping. The book places particular emphasis on the recent involvement of European countries in the UN operation in Mali (MINUSMA) and explores to what extent this experience might lead to further marked increases of European supplies of troops and capabilities and thus a broader ‘European return’ to UN peacekeeping. Each chapter offers an up-to-date case study on key countries’ policies, challenges and opportunities for a stronger re-engagement in UN Peacekeeping It provides a comprehensive analysis of the main challenges and concrete ways ahead for overcoming institutional, political, financial and military obstacles (both at European capitals and within the UN system) on the path towards a stronger re-engagement of European troop contributing countries in the field of UN Peacekeeping. Furthermore, each chapter includes a set of policy-relevant recommendations for future ways ahead. The chapters in this book were originally published in International Peacekeeping.
Support to UN Peace Operations: Ensuring More Effective UN Peace Operations (UNPO)
UNPO-prosjektet målsetter seg å styrke FNs fredsbevarende operasjoner og andre fredsoperasjoners evne til å håndtere globale sikkerhetsutfordringer, tilpasse seg en global orden i endr...
Plug and Play: Multinational Rotation Contributions for UN Peacekeeping Operations
In January 2016, Norway deployed a C-130 military transport aircraft to the UN mission in Mali (MINUSMA). Given the number of attacks on patrols and logistics convoys of MINUSMA, which has been called ‘the world’s most dangerous UN mission’, a military transport aircraft like the C-130 is considered a critical enabler to the UN mission, whose ability to operate safely and carry out its mandate has often been limited by the lack of air assets. From the beginning of the mission in July 2013, European troop-contributing countries (TCCs) have provided military aircrafts (C-130s and smaller C-160s and C-295s), but the difference between these and the 2016 deployment was that the latter was longer term, providing more predictability for the UN since it would be part of a multinational rotation contribution (MRC) initiated by Norway, followed by Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Belgium.
Quasi-Professionals in the Organisation of Transnational Crisis Mapping
The recent explosion of increasingly sophisticated mobile information communications technologies (ICTs) has led to the creation of new and complex networks and relationships. The fastest growth and adoption of mobile technologies is now in the developing world and often among populations facing development and humanitarian challenges. The entrepreneurial utilization of technological advances in these populations, combined with dispersed online networks in the developed world, is shaping global governance and the response of international organizations and governments in various ways. In this chapter we explore the particular phenomenon of crisis mapping that has arisen in the past five years out of the confluence of various technological advances and its combination with populations facing crisis. Specifically, we seek to analyze how quasi-professional crisis mappers or “mapsters” are shaping humanitarian action as an evolving professional field.
UN-Friedenssicherung und Terrorismusbekämpfung: seltsame Bettgenossen?
Engelsk sammendrag: UN Peacekeeping and Counterterrorism: Uncomfortable Bedfellows? Based on the case of the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the article argues that UN peacekeeping neither is, nor will be ready operationally, doctrinally or politically to take on counterterrorism tasks. Such a development will jeopardize the legal protection of UN staff, and the ability of the UN to be an impartial arbiter of conflict, and for other parts of the UN family to carry out humanitarian work. The article thus argues that MINUSMA is an anomaly in the history of UN peacekeeping, and should be avoided as an example for future operations.
Multinational rapid response mechanisms: Past promises and future prospects
Military rapid response mechanisms are generally understood as troops that are on standby, ready to be deployed to a crisis within a short time frame. Yet, the overall track record of the existing multinational rapid response mechanisms within the European Union, the African Union, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization remains disappointing, and the United Nations does not even have a rapidly deployable capacity anymore. Meanwhile, despite that calls for the further development of these mechanisms are still being voiced politically, scholarly literature remains fragmented. This is problematic as many of the obstacles faced by these organizations are similar. This forum uniquely compares experiences from the four aforementioned organizations. Drawing on these insights, this introductory article identifies some key factors that hamper or enable the development and deployment of multinational rapid response mechanisms.