NUPI Research Online (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
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Climate change and peacebuilding: sub-themes of an emerging research agenda
Full text linkClimate change is having profound effects on global security and peacebuilding efforts. While existing research has mainly focused on the link between climate change and conflict, it has largely overlooked the complex interplay between climate change, conflict-affected states and peacebuilding. Climate change exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in conflict-affected societies by adding stress to livelihoods and negatively impacting food, water and energy security. This is particularly concerning as climate change is often felt most acutely in settings where public institutions are already failing to meet the population's needs. Consequently, climate change can contribute to exacerbating grievances and hinder the ability to maintain, reinforce and build peace. Although practitioners in the peacebuilding field are beginning to respond to the effects of climate change, academic research has not adequately addressed the question of how climate change affects peacebuilding and how peacebuilding strategies can respond effectively. To fill this gap, a multidisciplinary approach drawing from climate security, environmental peacebuilding, environmental studies, and peace and conflict studies is needed in order to develop a research agenda that encompasses the intersections of climate change and peacebuilding. By recognizing the importance of climate change in peacebuilding efforts, this research agenda aims to provide critical insights and guide future studies.Climate change and peacebuilding: sub-themes of an emerging research agendapublishedVersio
Militarisering av det ytre rom: Karakter og bakgrunn - virkninger og begrensninger?
Full text linkGjennom flere tiår nå er militarisering av det ytre rom fra tid til annen blitt presentert og omtalt som et nytt, og stadig viktigere trekk ved den militære utvikling. Noen ganger er det blitt gjenstand for mer granskende oppmerksomhet, og da ikke sjelden også blitt advart mot. Oppmerksomheten, og særlig advarslene, tiltok blant annet i kjølvannet av president Ronald Reagans utspill i 1983 om antirakettforsvarsopplegget Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), i nyhetsmedienes omtale ofte kalt “Star Wars”. Særlig i etterkant av tusenårsskiftet er militarisering av det ytre rom – verdensrommet – igjen blitt trukket frem som et utviklingstrekk som kan komme til å prege det fremtidige militære bilde sterkere enn før, særlig på stormaktsnivå.1 Og på nytt er det ofte blitt advart mot dette. Men selv om det både i omtale av og advarsler mot militarisering av det ytre rom mange ganger nevnes eksempler på slik militarisering, forblir selve begrepet fortsatt noe uklart: Hva omfatter militarisering her, og hva faller utenfor? Uklarheten har mindre med det ytre rom å gjøre, men ligger snarere i bruken av selve ordet militarisering. Også brukt på andre områder er dette et ord som lett kan bidra til uklarhet. Det brukes vanligvis for å angi at noe blir gjenstand for militær anvendelse eller innblanding og derigjennom utnyttet for militære formål. Men det er ikke alltid lett å se klare grenser for hva som i så måte med rimelighet kan kalles militarisering. Er for eksempel en sivil flyplass med militær tilstedeværelse og virksomhet der, å regne som militarisert? Eller for å sette spørsmålet om rimelighet i så måte enda mer på spissen: kan militær bruk, periodevis eventuelt omfattende militær bruk, for militære formål av et veinett for sivil ferdsel hevdes å innebære en militarisering av dette?Militarisering av det ytre rom: Karakter og bakgrunn - virkninger og begrensninger?publishedVersio
Wager upon Wager. Assessing Iver B. Neumann contribution to International Relations
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Reimagining NATO after Crimea: Defender of the rule-based order and truth?
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Reinforcing Trust, Evoking Nostalgia and Contrasting China: Japan's Foreign Policy Repertoire and Identity Construction in Myanmar
Full text linkIn the immediate aftermath of the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, Western countries and the EU condemned the coup, imposed targeted sanctions against military leaders and military-owned companies, and redirected essential humanitarian aid to NGOs. Japan, however, chose to neither align with its democratic allies nor completely suspend its aid. Despite a long and complicated pre-war history and limited engagement after 1988, Japan-Myanmar relations experienced a resurgence between 2012 and 2021. This article contends that one key driving force in contemporary relations is identity construction. Drawing on the literature on relational identity and foreign policy repertoires, the article demonstrates how the discursive statements and embodied practices of a network of Japanese identity entrepreneurs activate, negotiate and renegotiate the identities of the Japanese Self and its Others. Through an analysis of interviews conducted with elite stakeholders in Myanmar and Japan, the article studies Japan’s constructed identity as an economic great power and post-war development pioneer, peace promoter and diplomatic mediator. It finds that Japan constructs its identity temporally in terms of nostalgia (natsukashisa) and a longing for a time when Japan was a post-war industrial powerhouse, but also spatially in terms of Japan’s legal, moral and industrial superiority over other countries involved in Myanmar’s development, in particular vis-à-vis China.Reinforcing Trust, Evoking Nostalgia and Contrasting China: Japan's Foreign Policy Repertoire and Identity Construction in MyanmarpublishedVersio
Small states coalition building in EU policy-making: The cases of the Nordic and Baltic countries
Full text linkForming coalitions in various forms and shapes - institutionalized or ad hoc without any permanent structures, territorially constituted, i.e. consisting of countries from one region, or theme-based - has become an important tool for small and medium-sized EU member states in order to increase their political weight and impact in EU policy-making. On the basis of a conceptional and theoretical framework that distinguishes between different types of coalitions and the Baltic and Nordic EU member states as case studies, this chapter analyses the use of coalitions for small states in an EU context along a number of examples of mainly regional coalitions. One important finding is that for defending their national interests Nordic and Baltic EU-members’ governments overall seem to prefer flexible, issue-specific intergovernmental, non-institutionalized ad hoc coalitions consisting of a smaller number of like-minded countries. In contrast, while in the academic literature institutionalized coalitions and alliances are often labelled as highest category of coalitions and indeed are good for informal consultations in a Nordic-Baltic context, in practice they do not seem to be preferred by these countries’ governments for negotiations in EU-policy making, because being not flexible enough or too small in terms of members.Small states coalition building in EU policy-making: The cases of the Nordic and Baltic countriespublishedVersio
UN Peacekeeping and Impartiality: A Fading Relationship
Full text linkWhile the UN secretary-general maintains in the 2023 New Agenda for Peace that the impartiality of the United Nations is its strongest asset, the UN is increasingly becoming partial on the ground. The trend that started with the inclusion of the Force Intervention Brigade in the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2013 is accelerating and taking on new forms. The UN has been supporting the African Union Mission in Somalia and providing logistical support to the Group of Five for the Sahel Joint Force in Mali. In December 2023, the UN Security Council agreed on a resolution that should enable the predictability and sustainability of assessed contributions to African-led counterinsurgency and counterterrorism operations, on certain conditions. The normative consequences of increased support to African-led interventions are significant and little explored. The UN system, including humanitarian and human rights components, will no longer be able to claim impartiality in countries where the UN is financing African-led interventions that are propping up fledgling regimes against opposition and terrorist groups. This essay will unpack and examine these developments and their consequences for UN peacekeeping and the larger UN system.UN Peacekeeping and Impartiality: A Fading RelationshippublishedVersio
How to make NATO better prepared to meet the challenge of the Russian political warfare? Lessons from Norway and Romania
Full text linkThis Policy Brief provides some policy recommendations on how to deal with the challenge of hybrid warfare in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine based on the findings of the FLANKS 2 project invoving the New Strategy Center in Romania and the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs NUPi in Norway.How to make NATO better prepared to meet the challenge of the Russian political warfare? Lessons from Norway and RomaniapublishedVersio
