NUPI Research Online (Norwegian Institute of International Affairs)
Not a member yet
1579 research outputs found
Sort by
Military Offensive Cyber-Capabilities: Small-State Perspectives
Get PDFThis Policy Brief provides an overview of the military cyber-defence strategies and capabilities of Norway and of the Netherlands. Comparison of the two different approaches offers insights into their differing tactics and future policy directions. The Brief contributes with a small-state perspective on this malleable and constantly changing field, nuancing the hitherto US-centred debate on the utility and need for deterrence and defence in cyberspace.Military Offensive Cyber-Capabilities: Small-State PerspectivespublishedVersio
Solar Power Potential of the Central Asian Countries
Get PDFThis data compilation surveys the solar energy potential of the five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It also provides data on installed and planned solar power capacity in these countries.Solar Power Potential of the Central Asian CountriespublishedVersio
Conclusion: Military rapid response—from institutional investment to ad hoc solutions
No full textWhile there has been a mushrooming of institutional arrangements for military rapid response, the formal deployments of the rapid response mechanisms of the African Union (AU), European Union (EU), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are few and far between. Since the dissolution of the Standby High Readiness Brigade (SHIRBRIG), the United Nations (UN) does not even have an available rapid response capacity anymore. This edited volume started from the puzzling observation that despite this operational near-standstill, there have been few efforts undertaken to date to bring together insights on the obstacles to deployment and to compare between these organizations. Neither has there been much scholarly attention to issues of inter-organizational cooperation and competition in the field in this increasingly institutionalized domain of military rapid response. This is clearly a missed opportunity, both in terms of cross-learning for overcoming shared obstacles and for assessing the future of military rapid response. The growing awareness of the necessity of rapidly responding to emerging crises, for protecting the lives of vulnerable populations but equally for protecting borders, and subsequent efforts to generate rapid response capacities, has resulted in a dense web of inter-organizational practice and relations. This volume has offered one of the first comprehensive and comparative contributions on military rapid response mechanisms to date by providing an assessment of the institutionalized mechanisms for rapid response (in Chapters 1–4) and the inter-organizational relations that shape crisis responses in practice (Chapters 5–8).Conclusion: Military rapid response—from institutional investment to ad hoc solutionsacceptedVersio
BRI in Central Asia: Rail and Road Connectivity Projects
Get PDFThis data article shows that most of the rail and road projects in which the Chinese are involved in Central Asia are implemented within the territories of individual countries and thus are still poorly linked with each other. However, these internal transport routes are expected to eventually form the basis of a new cross-regional network within the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Smaller scale road construction and rehabilitation projects create linkages connecting China across Central Asia to South Asia, Turkey, Europe, and the Middle East.BRI in Central Asia: Rail and Road Connectivity ProjectspublishedVersio
Do Peace Operations Work? How effective are specific peace operations when assessed within their own context? Are they effective from the perspective of the people most directly affected by these operations?
Get PDFsubmittedVersio
China’s Export Success: Due to Unfair Practices or Fair Competition?
Get PDFCompared with previous ratings, China’s trade policy today is more positively acknowledged. Yet, China can still be criticised in particular because of its non-transparent subsidy policy, the privileged role of state-owned enterprises, the heavy hand of the state in general, the sluggish enforcement of intellectual property rights, and the prevalence of non-tariff barriers. Yet, it cannot be ignored that Chinese entrepreneurship mentality is highly developed outside state interference in world markets. Especially, in the digital economy, high motivation and a large pool of human skills act as drivers of innovations, so far mainly process innovations. The trade war with the US hurts China and is responded by China with asymmetrical retaliation. The more Chinese exports to the US in total are affected, the more costs will have to be borne by US consumers as options to shift to alternative suppliers become weaker. What President Trump would see as a “good” deal for the US is unclear. It can be thus presumed that the trade war will continue into 2020 and that it is in fact a tech war. The EU is affected as EU companies produce in China for the US market and in the US for the Chinese market. While it might gain from trade diversion effects in the short run, the negative effects on investment due to uncertainty weigh more heavily. The EU is tempted to negotiate a free trade agreement with China but rightly refuses to start negotiations before China is prepared to conclude an agreement on investment. The EU should not see China and the US on equidistance. Workable relations with the US are much more important. To conclude, China’s trade policy has improved relative to Western standards but still warrants further steps towards much less state influence. Yet, its global competiveness especially in the state-of-the-art digital economy is high and is owed to a strong entrepreneurial mentality.China’s Export Success: Due to Unfair Practices or Fair Competition?publishedVersio
The Emergence of Foreign Policy
Get PDFInternational relations scholarship typically treats foreign policy as a taken-for-granted analytical concept. It assumes either that all historical polities have foreign policies or that foreign policy originates in seventeenth-century Europe with the separation between the “inside” and “outside” of the state. It generally holds that foreign policy differs in essential ways from other kinds of policy, such as carrying with it a special need for secrecy. I argue against this view. The difference between “foreign” and “domestic” policy results from specific political processes; secrecy begat foreign policy. Growing domestic differentiation between state and civil society in the eighteenth century—articulated through a relatively free press operating in a nascent public sphere—enabled the emergence of foreign policy as a practical concept. The concept served to delimit the legitimate sphere of political discourse from the exclusive, executive sphere of king and cabinet. I explore these processes in Britain and France, important cases with different trajectories, one of reform, the other of revolution. Historicizing foreign policy like this serves to denaturalize the separation between different forms of policy, as well as the necessity of secrecy. Doing so cautions against the uncritical application of abstract analytical terms across time and space.The Emergence of Foreign PolicyacceptedVersionpublishedVersio
BRI in Central Asia: Industrial Projects
Get PDFChina’s investment in the industrial sectors of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan has been on the rise since the 1990s. However, this data article shows the recent expansion of Chinese investment also in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Thus, China has expanded its engagement in the development of local industries in larger countries as well. The projects in Kazakhstan are the largest in terms of the number and size of investments. China has substantially increased the number of industrial projects in Uzbekistan, yet the evidence shows that the costs of the projects are small in scale.BRI in Central Asia: Industrial ProjectspublishedVersio
Hydropower Potential of the Central Asian Countries
Get PDFThis data article surveys the hydropower potential of the five Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The dataset presents the theoretical hydropower supply capacity of all the river basins of Central Asia. It was prepared using data from national and international sources, and it provides information on installed small and medium hydropower capacities and planned projects in the above-mentioned countries.Hydropower Potential of the Central Asian CountriespublishedVersio