Papers by Ole Jacob Sending
The Oxford Handbook of International Security
The relationship between the study and practice of security has not only changed considerably ove... more The relationship between the study and practice of security has not only changed considerably over the last 20 years, but has also become more varied, where ever more actors perform ever more specialized tasks of both analyzing and providing security. Once dominated by a principle of segmentary (territorially delimited) differentiation, we argue that the relative strength of the national framing has declined and that functional differentiation has increased over the last three decades, resulting in transnationalization in what is increasingly a market for security expertise and a proliferation of types of actors engaged in knowledge production surrounding security (e.g. International Crisis Group) as well as the practice of security. Resulting from this proliferation, there will be category-defying practices of security, for example the move toward “hybrid warfare” and in the realm of cyber security.
Undermining American Hegemony
2021, 2021
Europa er Norges viktigste marked, og europeiske land er – sammen med USA – Norges viktigste alli... more Europa er Norges viktigste marked, og europeiske land er – sammen med USA – Norges viktigste allierte i utenrikspolitikken. Gitt Norges tilkobling til EU via EØS-avtalen, Schengen, og Klimaavtalen, så vil enhver endring i EUs mål og virkemåte påvirke Norge. EUs grønne giv (European Green Deal - EGD) er en av de mest omfattende endringene av EU på lang tid. EGD er på en og samme tid en klimastrategi og en vekststrategi, med et klart mål om at energi-basen for økonomien skal gjøres fornybar og sirkulær. Selv om en overordnet strategi og plan er etablert, er det betydelig usikkerhet knyttet til hvor-dan EGD vil se ut. Norge har dialog med EU om EGD, men som ikke-medlem har Norge be-grenset informasjonstilgang og ikke minst svært begrenset mulighet til å påvirke utformingen av EGD. Samtidig fokuserer EGD på saker som ikke bare er viktige for Norge, men som også er potensielt vanskelige, gitt Norges avhengighet av olje og gass. At EU lykkes med å nå egne klimamål vil være viktig for å nå globale klimamål, og EU vil kunne være en pådriver for global klimapolitikk. For Norge definerer EGD en ramme og et sett av tiltak som kan bidra positivt til en krevende omstilling, og som kan ventes å ha en rekke konsekvenser: • EGD vil innebære økt pris på utslipp og samtidig gi insentiver og støtteordninger for utvikling av ny teknologi, herunder på karbonfangst og lagring, på hydrogen og på havvind. For norsk næringsliv denerer således EGD nye rammevilkår, men hvor det er usikkerhet knyttet til utformingen av konkrete regler og tiltak, som kan påvirke investeringsbeslutninger. • Norges økonomiske interesser er fortsatt i stor grad knyttet til fortsatt olje- og gassproduk-sjon, og EGD vil sannsynligvis fremskynde når «knekkpunktet», politisk og økonomisk, inntreer der risiko vil være høyere enn potensiell nytte/verdi ved fortsatt olje- og gassproduksjon. • Norge behandler ofte energipolitikken, som blant annet innebærer planer om fortsatt olje- og gassproduksjon, adskilt fra klimapolitikken. EGD innebærer at EU i større grad inte-grerer energi- og klimapolitikken, noe som både politisk og forvaltningsmessig vil kunne være utfordrende. • EGD innebærer til dels en kvalitativt ny metode for politisk styring gjennom såkalt «main-streaming», hvor alt av regler revideres for å sikre en grønn prol. En slik sektorovergripende tilnærming bryter med sektorprinsippet i norsk politikk, som kan skape utfordringer knyttet til EØS, hvor hvert fagdepartement har ansvar for sine respektive politikkfelt. • Volumet og tempoet i nye tiltak under EGD er svært høyt, noe som utfordrer det forvalt-ningsmessige oppsettet for håndtering av EGD i Norge. Samtidig bringer EGD med seg regulatorisk usikkerhet for Norge fordi det er uklart hvordan ulike regler vil bli utformet, og om det kan gis unntak og tilpasninger dersom det anses ønskelig for Norge. • Interessene og oppmerksomheten hos EUs medlemsland vil sannsynligvis endre seg i tråd med EGD. Norge kan ikke utelukke at de landene som historisk har vært nære allierte – EU-medlemmer i nordvestlige deler av Europa – i noe mindre grad kan ha sammenfallen-de interesser med Norge i energipolitikken. Det er for eksempel interessant å merke seg at Norge i mindre grad enn før får gehør fra tradisjonelle allierte for argumenter om gass som overgangsløsning på veien mot karbonnøytralitet, mens EU-land i sør og øst i større grad er åpne for slik argumentasjon. • Norges mulighet til å påvirke EUs beslutninger er begrenset, og knytter seg først og fremst til deltakelse i arbeids- og ekspertgrupper i en tidlig, forberedende fase som drives av ulike departementer og underliggende etater. Med EGD blir dette arbeidet vesentlig mer omfattende og krever større grad av koordinering, også på politisk nivå. • Regelverket er komplekst, fordrer stor teknisk kompetanse på ulike saksfelt, og stiller også store krav til breddekunnskap om EUs beslutningsprosesser. • EGD betyr at EUs langsiktige strategi og prioriteringer dyttes mot en fornybar og sirkulær fremtid. Indirekte vil dette sannsynligvis også påvirke vurderinger i EU av hva slags kom-petanse som anses viktig. For å bli invitert inn i viktige diskusjoner i Brussel og i andre europeiske hovedsteder må Norge anses å ha relevante bidrag. Dette vil stille nye krav til utviklingen av næringer, spisskompetanse og politiske initiativ.
Internasjonal Politikk, Jun 14, 2010
Liberia og fredsbygging: en institusjonell forskningsagenda morten skumsrud andersen ole jacob se... more Liberia og fredsbygging: en institusjonell forskningsagenda morten skumsrud andersen ole jacob sending NUPI I såkalte «fragile» (sårbare) eller «failed» (mislykkede) stater, ofte et resultat av langvarige og voldelige konfl ikter, er FN og koalisjoner av stater (Wilson 2003) involvert i rekonstruksjon og fredsbygging over hele verden. I Liberia har et slikt prosjekt pågått siden den vaepnede konfl ikten opphørte i 2003. Etter at relativ sikkerhet har blitt opprettet i landet og nasjonalvalg holdt i 2005, mener man at landet nå befi nner seg i en avgjørende fase av fredsbyggingsprosessen. Internasjonale aktører implementerer derfor en mengde initiativer og programmer i landet, men FN er ikke i stand til å levere det organisasjonen lover når det gjelder rask, relevant og baerekraftig fi nansiell, militaer og politisk støtte. Delvis på grunn av dette kan vi se et økende fokus vekk fra å betrakte statsbygging som en snarvei til en weberiansk legal og rasjonell statsorden, med institusjonsbygging i høysetet (se for eksempel Fukuyama 2004), og mot et syn på fredsbygging som problematiserer mange av disse antagelsene (se f.eks. Crocker et al. 2001; Stedman et al. 2002; Paris 2004). Mer vekt gis nå sosiale og kontekstuelle faktorer, selv om disse ofte kombineres med det tradisjonelle fokuset på institusjonsbygging (se f.eks. Paris 2003; Chesterman 2004). Noen vil undersøke hva som er den mest eff ektive måten å implementere liberal fredsbygging på (se f.eks. Papagianni 2008; Rubin 2008), mens andre, mer antropologisk inspirerte studier, ser på hvordan fredsbygging utspiller seg i praksis, og med hvilke eff ekter. Ofte har de et mindre normativt utgangspunkt, og ser på hvordan fredsbyggere på bakken ser seg selv og sin rolle, eller hvordan lokale oppfatter eksternt drevne prosjekter (se f.eks.
Journal of International Affairs, 2019
Political leaders describe the climate crisis as the greatest challenge of our time, but it plays... more Political leaders describe the climate crisis as the greatest challenge of our time, but it plays only a marginal role in the foreign policy of most states and in the scholarly literature on international relations. Only 0.77 percent of the articles in five top international relations (IR) journals between 2015 and 2019 were about climate change. This is a problem, for when the full impact of climate change and policy responses to climate change is felt, it will redefine international politics. We suggest five broad areas where it is necessary to better understand how climate change will reshape world politics: sovereignty, security, status and reputation, norms and coalitions, and the geopolitics of energy.
Thanks are due to the Training for Peace programme at the Norwegian Institute of International Af... more Thanks are due to the Training for Peace programme at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs for financial support. A great many people-in Juba, South Sudan, and in New York-have taken time off their busy schedules to talk to us. Without them, we would not have been able to finalize this report. Since interviews have been based on anonymity, our respondents are not identified here by name. Øystein Lyngroth at the MFA in Oslo and Thoralf Stenvold at the Permanent Mission of Norway to the UN in New York allowed us to sit in on their meetings, and helped us get in touch with key staff in different UN agencies. Similarly, Elisabeth Lothe and Randolf Strømsnes took time off their busy schedules to help us get in touch with UNMIS staff in Juba. Thanks also to Stian Kjeksrud and Jacob Ravndal for sharing their expertise, and their experiences from field trips. And to Susan Høivik for greatly improving the language. Finally, thanks for support from and stimulating discussions with colleagues at NUPI:
The Oxford Handbook of Global Policy and Transnational Administration, 2019
The transnationalization of public policy has in part been driven by knowledge networks, but the ... more The transnationalization of public policy has in part been driven by knowledge networks, but the role and functioning of such networks have also been transformed in the process. This chapter discusses some key contributions in the study of knowledge networks in transnational policy from both public administration and from International Relations, and highlights areas where there is scope for cross-fertilization. Three issues merit attention. First, the ways in which normative commitments are linked to or articulated with knowledge production and how this shapes the role and functioning of knowledge networks. Second, how the emergence of evidence-based policy and the reliance on ‘objective’ measures as a basis for public policy transforms the status of expertise and may undermine the idea of the expert as providing judgements. Third, how transnationalization is also a process of differentiation, which renders our analytical vocabulary less useful, since a key feature of differentiati...
Routledge Handbook of International Political Sociology, 2016
Review of International Studies, 2018
In this article, the introduction to this Special Issue, we underline the importance of the dynam... more In this article, the introduction to this Special Issue, we underline the importance of the dynamics of misrecognition for the study of world politics. We make the case for shifting the focus from ‘recognition’, where it has long been cast in social, political and, more recently, International Relations theory, tomisrecognition. We do so by returning to the original theorisation of misrecognition, Hegel’s dialectic of the master and servant. Our point of departure is not only that the desire for recognition is key social dynamic, but that thefailureto obtain this recognition is built into this very desire. It is a crucial factor for understanding how international actors behave, including, but not only, states.Thus understood, the desire for recognition is not simply a desire for social goods, for status or for statehood, but for more agency – more capacity to act. We explore the logic of misrecognition and show how the international system is a symbolic structure that is ordained b...
International Theory, 2017
To analyze how authority emerges, become institutionalized, and may be transformed, we are best s... more To analyze how authority emerges, become institutionalized, and may be transformed, we are best served with a concept of authority that highlights its dynamic features, and that captures the multiplicity of actors involved in producing and sustaining it. Extant accounts tend to operate with a view of ‘solid’ authority, but such a concept of authority is mainly descriptive, not explanatory. A turn to the liquid features of authority is not only better suited to account for global authority, but also for those pockets of ‘solid’ authority that we can find in the global or international sphere. I develop an account of authority that draws selectively from some of Bourdieu’s core concepts and highlight the inherently relational aspect of authority. Authority, I submit, is based on actors’ search for recognition. Such a perspective is better able to account for how authority emerges and may stabilize as ‘solid,’ and also be transformed over time. I draw on examples from the World Health ...
ERIS – European Review of International Studies, 2017
Abstract Constructivist theories have produced a wealth of insights about the dynamics by which s... more Abstract Constructivist theories have produced a wealth of insights about the dynamics by which social facts shape actors’ identities and how distinct logics of action are at work in upholding and producing particular orders. Reviewing this literature, I argue that the normsoriented scholarship has failed also on its own terms in that it has tailored different logics of action to the task of explaining particular political orders rather than agency proper. These norm-centred accounts present themselves as agent-oriented, but subsume the exploration of agency within an account of the micro-level foundation for a norm-anchored order. In lieu of such a perspective, I unearth one key insight from Richard Ashley and treat agency as an achievement. It is an effort to balance external forces in such a way as to achieve a semblance of agency or control. This view of agency is, I think, implicit in Kratochwil and Onuf’s work on rules. I explicate this view and demonstrate how it offers better tools with which to explore the historically changing conditions within which actors seek to present themselves as proper agents and to shape any given order, which cannot be reduced to, or subsumed within, any particular logic of action. Keywords : Agency, norms, constructivism, performance, heteronomy. ----- Bibliography: Sending, Ole Jacob: Agency, Order, and Heteronomy, ERIS, 3-2016, pp. 63-75. https://doi.org/10.3224/eris.v3i3.27343
The Protection of Civilians in UN Peacekeeping, 2013
This book examines world politics through the lens of diplomatic practice. It argues that many gl... more This book examines world politics through the lens of diplomatic practice. It argues that many global phenomena of our time, from the making of international law to the constitution of international public power, through humanitarianism and the maintenance of global hierarchies, are made possible and shaped by evolving forms of diplomacy. The study of diplomacy is largely dominated by firsthand accounts and historical treaties, with little effort at theoretical discussion. This book shows how diplomatic studies can benefit from more explicit theorizing, and argues that the study of world politics should pay more attention to what goes on in the diplomatic 'engine room' of international politics.
International Studies Quarterly, 2006
Studies of global governance typically claim that the state has lost power to nonstate actors and... more Studies of global governance typically claim that the state has lost power to nonstate actors and that political authority is increasingly institutionalized in spheres not controlled by states. In this article, we challenge the core claims in the literature on global governance. Rather than focusing on the relative power of states and nonstate actors, we focus on the sociopolitical functions and processes of governance in their own right and seek to identify their rationality as practices of political rule. For this task, we use elements of the conception of power developed by Michel Foucault in his studies of ''governmentality.'' In this perspective, the role of nonstate actors in shaping and carrying out global governance-functions is not an instance of transfer of power from the state to nonstate actors but rather an expression of a changing logic or rationality of government (defined as a type of power) by which civil society is redefined from a passive object of government to be acted upon into an entity that is both an object and a subject of government. The argument is illustrated by two case studies: the international campaign to ban landmines, and international population policy. The cases show that the self-association and political will-formation characteristic of civil society and nonstate actors do not stand in opposition to the political power of the state, but is a most central feature of how power, understood as government, operates in late modern society. 1 An important source of inspiration for the perspective advanced in these studies is the work on ''transgovernmentalism'' first formulated by Keohane and Nye in the 1970s. See, for example, Keohane and Nye (1972). For a good overview of the literature on the role of non-state actors, see Risse (2002).
Millennium-journal of International Studies, 2007
In traditional power analysis, `the international' is a characteristic of the states system —... more In traditional power analysis, `the international' is a characteristic of the states system — an anarchic realm, qualitatively different from the domestic. To traditional norms analysis, the international is increasingly a realm of shared value allocation, akin to other political realms. Given this bifurcation in the literature, privileging power incurs the cost of not being able to study systemic change of the international, whereas privileging norms incurs the cost of not being able to study power. We argue that extant conceptualisations of the international hail from Weber via Morgenthau, for whom international politics was an ideal type applied to the realm between states. Building on Mike Williams's work, we perform a new reading of these two scholars. We find that Morgenthau's identification of the political as an ideal-typical sphere has room for social theoretical insights as found in constructivist theory. Indeed, by his own Weberian lights, Morgenthau's specific ideal type of international politics is in need of updating. We try to rise to the challenge by drawing on Michel Foucault's work in order to forge an understanding of the international as governmentality. The result is a conceptualisation of the international as a socially embedded realm of governmentality. It is a structure (defined by relations of power) that generates different and changing practices of political rule (defined as governmental rationality) and agencies (for example, polities).
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Papers by Ole Jacob Sending
Advancing a field-based approach, Sending highlights the political stakes disguised by the technical language of professionals and thus opens a broader public debate over the key issues of our time.
- See more at: https://www.press.umich.edu/4016693/politics_of_expertise#sthash.Y349GS3B.dpuf
missions. Granted, much of the attention PoC receives derives from confusion between
PoC and its sibling, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), which has seen a recent revival
with, inter alia, the NATO mission in Libya. There is a clear argument to be made for
PoC having become a more central concern to peacekeeping missions to the point of
guiding many of the activities undertaken by peacekeepers. Nevertheless, few studies
have sought to understand how an emphasis on PoC has affected UN peacekeeping in
practice. Even fewer have attempted to take stock of the experience from more than
one mission. This is what the present volume seeks to do.
the remit of diplomacy. Diplomacy is thus understood a specific way of organizing political processes geared toward reproducing the state as the naturalized venue for political mobilization and agency, thereby foreclosing debates about how states, and diplomacy, are implicated in the suffering of those who are not their citizens. At the same time, humanitarian actors typically step in to mobilize
resources and demand agency to save distant strangers from a claim of standing outside of politics and thus also as operating partly outside formal diplomatic channels, thereby also displacing, albeit in a different way, debates about political responsibility for the causes and consequences of humanitarian crises.