The World Stage

In this episode, Professor Deborah Welch Larson joins host Morten Skumsrud Andersen to discuss how the need for recognition and the fear of status loss affect international politics.  Drawing on decades of research, Larson starts with the mistrust that defined the Cold War, before examining how powers like China and Russia seek international status through emulation, competition, and social c...

Over the past decade, China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has redrawn physical, economic, and political maps. From ports in the Indian Ocean to railways across Central Asia, the BRI has been described as the most ambitious infrastructure project in modern history. But ambition does not necessarily equate permanence, and scale does not guarantee influence.   How far can infrastructure take...

In this episode of The World Stage , NUPI Senior Researcher Erik Skare explores the complex history and internal dynamics of Hamas with Jeroen Gunning, Professor at King's College London and a pioneer in the field of critical terrorism studies. Founded in 1987 as the military wing of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas has grown into a multifaceted movement encompassing political, social, an...

New forms of cooperation are emerging, and countries are increasingly turning to smaller, more flexible alliances to navigate uncertainty. In this new landscape, partnerships between like-minded actors matter more than ever, and the relationship between the European Union and Japan is a key example of this. As global governance continues to evolve, this episode asks: how can the EU and Japan not o...

In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, Cedric de Coning (NUPI) sits down with Louise Lieberknecht (formerly GRID-Arendal) who is one of the authors of a new report investigating the environmental dimensions of conflict in the Lake Chad region. The authors have examined how insecurity impacts the environment and how conflict dynamics are shaped by environmental factors. The episode is...

Is the liberal international order coming to an end, and what follows the era of American hegemony? In this episode of  The World Stage , Senior Research Fellow  Wrenn Yennie Lindgren (NUPI) sits down with  Manjeet Pardesi , Associate Professor of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, to explore the shifting foundations of global politics. Drawing on his...

What are the role of resilience and peacebuilding perspectives and approaches when it comes to preventing violent extremism? How can resilience and peace building help address the root causes of violent extremism? This is the topic for this episode of NUPI's The World Stage, and of a new book edited by this episode's guests; Ako Muto (JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development)...

Join us for a conversation on European security in a time marked by war, nuclear threats, and growing strategic uncertainty. Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising doubts about US security guarantees, Research Fellow Gine Lund Bolling (NUPI) examines Emmanuel Macron’s recent address on French nuclear policy. The French president’s remarks signal the most significant shift...

How can we best prevent and manage climate-related insecurity in one of the world's most vulnerable regions? In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, Research Professor Cedric de Coning (NUPI) takes us into the heart of the Lake Chad region, and into a two-year research project examining how regional strategies are shaping peace and security. The guests in this podcast episode are Prof...

In this episode of the World Stage podcast, host  Ole Jacob Sending  (The Norwegian Centre for Geopolitics, NUPI) sits down with  Alex Cooley (Columbia University) and  Taylor St. John  (NUPI) to discuss the shift toward transnational kleptocracy   in US foreign policy. Drawing on a recent  Foreign Affairs  article, the gue...

In the EU’s enlargement debate, attention usually centres on Brussels—legal benchmarks, progress reports and diplomatic bargaining. But in countries hoping to join the bloc, politics is often decided via informal power networks, fragile institutions and the everyday effort of navigating uncertainty.  In this episode we shift from the...

How are enlargement reforms unfolding on the ground and what drives progress or stagnation? The 2025 Enlargement Package presents a mixed picture: Ukraine and Moldova are racing ahead, while Serbia and Georgia are lagging. The EU itself is struggling with internal divisions and reform fatigue. This episode of The World Stage is part of  The Neighbourhood series from the NUPI-led project Re-en...

The international system faces its gravest crisis in decades. As global democracy retreats, authoritarian regimes actively challenge established international rules and norms. This episode asks: Which institutions are worth saving in this " burning house " of cooperation? We analyse the paralysis of the UN Security Council and NATO's struggle against illiberal pressures as the world order begins t...

EU enlargement is back at the top of the EU’s political agenda as Russia’s war against Ukraine has transformed it from a bureaucratic process into a matter of European security. In this episode,  Mark Leonard  speaks with  Lykke Friis , co-chair of ECFR’s council, director of the Danish think-tank Europa, and former Danish minister, as European leaders gather for the European Politi...

With the growing sense of perpetual and compounding global crises and war, it is not only policy makers that are scrambling to respond. The discipline of International Relations has also been thrown into upheaval and reconsidering and revising its theoretical apparatus. This episode of the World Stage takes a step back and discusses the role of constructivism for Illuminating the current moment wi...

How does the new Norwegian High North strategy situate Norway and its northernmost countries in Arctic and global politics? What are the new priorities and signals in the strategy? And how will they be realized in practice in Norwegian foreign policy? In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, NUPI researcher Elana Wilson Rowe sits down with State Secretary (MFA) Maria Varteressian, and...

International cooperation and the rules-based order as we know it is now at stake. The inauguration of Donald Trump in his second presidential term, Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, and great power rivalry are just some of the factors that have had an influence on how countries can work together. In addition, several multilateral organisations are being criticised for a lack of efficiency in solvin...

Come Back Alive and other volunteer organisations is an underappreciated, but important factor in Ukraine's fight against Russia. They are a vital part of Ukraine’s resilience as the war enters its fourth year. Come Back Alive enjoys high trust, legitimacy and cooperates closely with the brigades in the field and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Volunteer organisations show how popular mobilisat...

The American security guarantee to Europe appears to be less iron clad than it used to be. The Trump administration seeks to shift military assets from Europe to the Asia-Pacific and expect Europe to spend 5% of its GDP on defence. How dramatic are these changes? How will it happen? And will it make Europe more exposed and vulnerable to potential Russian aggression? In this episode Karsten&nb...

Is the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Mali, and in larger sense UN Peacekeeping, a canary in the coal mine for international cooperation? What can it tell us about geopolitical tensions and cooperation among key powers? And what does the future hold for Mali and the Sahel?  In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, Research Professor at NUPI John Karlsrud sits down with Art...

How is climate change tackled as a potential threat to peace and security in the United States? How can American policy and discourses in the field be compared to those in other areas of the world?   In this episode of The World Stage, Erin Sikorsky (Center for Climate Security) sits down with Cedric de Coning, Minoo Koefoed and Thor Olav Iversen (NUPI) to discuss responses to the effects of...

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System for UN Peacekeeping Operations (CPAS) with Kym Taylor who is the chief of the evaluation team within the Division for Policy, Evaluation and Training of the Department of Peace Operations, and Hans Sachs who is programme management officer in the same team. Host of the episode is Research Profess...

The Principal Investigator of the project The EU Navigating Multilateral Cooperation (NAVIGATOR), Research Professor John Karlsrud (NUPI), discusses the research agenda and how it will explore the ways in which the EU should navigate multilateral corporations. After presenting himself, the international team involved as well as the project's genesis, Karlsrud details the central research questions...

How big of a multilateral actor is China? How is it working to influence issues ranging from artificial intelligence to the war in Ukraine?  Courtney Fung (Macquire University) sits down with Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr (NUPI) to discuss noticeable changes happening around China and the multilateral governance system in this episode of The World Stage. The episode includes discussion of the various g...

In 2016 in Havana, the Colombian government signed a peace agreement with the FARC-EP guerilla, after several years of first secret, and then official, negotiations. The Havana talks and peace agreement have been acclaimed as the most gender inclusive in history. 8 years later, what is happening with the implementation of the agreement, and what are women’s roles in peace processes in Colombia tod...