The World Stage
Episodes
European nuclear deterrence: The french initiative
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a conversation on European security in a time marked by war, nuclear threats, and growing strategic uncertainty.Against the backdrop of Ru...
A region under pressure: Preventing climate change related conflict in the Lake Chad region
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
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 W...
The Rise of Transnational Kleptocracy
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the World Stage podcast, host Ole Jacob Sending (The Norwegian Centre for Geopolitics, NUPI) sits dow...
Trust, anger and the limits of EU democracy promotion
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the EU’s enlargement debate, attention usually centres on Brussels—legal benchmarks, progress reports and diplomatic b...
The Neighbourhood: The EU’s enlargement reality check
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How are enlargement reforms unfolding on the ground and what drives progress or stagnation? The 2025 Enlargement Package presents a mixed picture: Ukr...
Democratic backsliding, illiberal regimes and international cooperation under pressure
21 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The international system faces its gravest crisis in decades. As global democracy retreats, authoritarian regimes actively challenge established inter...
The Neighbourhood: Europe’s enlargement moment
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Constructivist theorizing in tumultuous times (ft Nicholas Onuf and Stefano Guzzini)
24 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Arctic ambitions: Norway’s new High North strategy
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does the new Norwegian High North strategy situate Norway and its northernmost countries in Arctic and global politics? What are the new prioritie...
Is the era of cooperation coming to an end?
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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, R...
Ukraine’s secret weapon: Civil society at war
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Come Back Alive and other volunteer organisations is an underappreciated, but important factor in Ukraine's fight against Russia. They are a vital par...
Transatlantic security in turbulent times
06 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
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 fro...
Is MINUSMA a canary in the coal mine for international cooperation?
17 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Climate, peace and security in the US and beyond
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Improving UN peacekeeping performance through evidence-based impact assessments
25 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the Comprehensive Planning and Performance Assessment System for UN Peacekeeping Operations (CPAS) with Kym ...
How should the EU navigate multilateral cooperation?
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Principal Investigator of the project The EU Navigating Multilateral Cooperation (NAVIGATOR), Research Professor John Karlsrud (NUPI), discusses t...
Multilateral China: crafting influence in and beyond the UN
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How big of a multilateral actor is China? How is it working to influence issues ranging from artificial intelligence to the war in Ukraine? Court...
Making Gender Great Again? The Legacy of Colombia’s Historic Agreement
02 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Africa in a changing global order: G20 membership and elusive peace in Somalia and Sudan
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can we understand the African Union’s evolving position in a changing global order from its role in the G20 and its peace initiatives in Somalia...
India and global digital governance
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The global governance of digital technologies is frequently framed around a contest between two competing camps.One camp is the so-called like-minded ...
Everyday nationalism amidst Russia’s war against Ukraine
08 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On 12 June Russia celebrated its national day, “Russia day”. This day is marked with concerts and celebrations in all the regions in the Russian F...
The state of European democracy
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, we take a closer look at the state of European democracy in the wake of the recent election to th...
Understanding Xi Jinping’s China: Power Competition and Geopolitical Dynamics in Contemporary International Relations
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over a year into Xi Jinping’s historic third five-year term as President, China continues to make headlines worldwide. Many of these headlines now...
The votes that can shape European security
11 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2024 will be an important election year on both sides of the Atlantic. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are yet again battli...
How ad hoc coalitions deinstitutionalize international institutions
04 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As ad hoc coalitions (AHCs) proliferate, particularly on the African continent, two questions crystallize. First, what consequences do they bring abou...
Building peace through a sustainable environment
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why should we connect the environment to issues of peace and conflict? And in a world of dramatically increased geopolitical tensions, is it possible ...
Options for Arctic governance in difficult weather
16 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Arctic continues to be transformed and impacted by global forces, from declining sea ice on the Arctic Ocean, through new summers of devastating w...
The Past, Present and Future of Peacekeeping
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
2023 marked 75 years of peacekeeping missions in the UN. In this time, more than 70 peacekeeping operations have been deployed by the UN. Hundreds and...
How to Become a Hegemon
16 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode NUPI's Ole Jacob Sending sits down with Professor Dan Nexon of Georgetown University to talk about how international political leaders...
AI, God and Ethics
19 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The World Stage, we meet Dr. Paolo Benanti. Benanti, who is known for coining the term algorethics, is a professor in ethics of tec...
Guardians of the Algorithm: Why AI Needs Global Oversight
09 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The World Stage, join us for an insightful conversation with AI expert Dr. Rumman Chowdhury, recently recognized on The Times list ...
Adaptive peace: A new way of thinking about peacebuilding
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the The World Stage, NUPI researchers Thor Olav Iversen and Cedric de Coning discuss how to sustain peace amidst the uncertainty an...
Does BRICS' expansion signify conflict between the West and the rest?
14 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is the BRICS a geopolitical competitor to the West? In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, Thor Olav Iversen (NUPI), Cedric de Coning (N...
AI and Geopolitics
09 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How should we regulate AI? How will AI impact the power balance between the US and China? And how does Microsoft navigate this complex landscape? In t...
The UN Secretary-General’s New Agenda for Peace: What new challenges will it address?
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What issues are likely to be covered in the Agenda for Peace? Why is it important? UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for a...
The ugly duckling of the foreign services
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Visiting prisoners, assisting lost travellers and distressed expats. Consular work is often considered the ugly duckling of the foreign services, far ...
UN peace operations and the political economy of civil war
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
UN peace operations are overwhelmingly deployed within societies fractured by civil war. To understand why the UN has encountered difficulties, operat...
Understanding the roots of Kurdish resilience to violent extremism in Iraq
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are the reasons behind the limited impact of violent extremism and the Islamic State in the Kurdistan region of Iraq? In this episode of the NUPI...
Locating missing persons in Ukraine
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do you find missing persons in the midst of war?Kathryne Bomberger, Director-General of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), ex...
Norway’s work on climate, peace, and security in the UN Security Council
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Climate security was one of Norway’s priority areas during its period as an elected member of the UN Security Council (2021–2022). What did Norway...
Russia-West relations before, in and after the war on Ukraine
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Was there ever a deal to be had with Putin before the war? Is Russia mainly motivated by domestic or foreign policy considerations? And is there anyth...
How to engage with China?
31 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The World stage, Rana Mitter, Professor at the University of Oxford, and Bjørnar Sverdrup-Thygeson, Senior Research Fellow at NUPI...
The emergence of Non-Western and Global International Relations
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the World Stage podcast, NUPI’s Cedric de Coning is in conversation with Amitav Acharya and Stein Tønnesson on the emergence of ...
How to make UN peace operations more effective?
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has set a process in motion to re-think the UN’s role in peace and security in the current global contex...
Security realities of freezing politics and thawing landscapes in the Arctic
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Russia’s re-invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has had immediate and ongoing effects for Arctic security and cooperative governance at both a regional and ...
Russian youth, war, and independent journalists in exile
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Russian online magazine DOXA is this year's winner of the Norwegian Student Peace Prize. The committee highlights their work exposing corruption a...
Rethinking radicalisation and resilience in Mali and the Sahel
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does resilience against radicalisation and violent extremism look like in Mali and the Sahel? And which drivers are present for the spread of ext...
Putin’s potential headache: The anti-mobilization protests in North Caucasus
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After Vladimir Putin’s announcement of the partial mobilization of the war in Ukraine in September, people, and in particular women, took to the str...
Abkhazia between Russia and the outside world
01 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
De facto states - states that have failed to win international recognition - have long been understudied 'blank spots,' overlooked in academic literat...
The next migration crisis: Is the EU better prepared?
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode we take a closer look on how the EU will handle a new migration crisis. A new wave of mass migration to Europe might be buildi...
Bridging or dividing people? A conversation about Bosnia and Herzegovina and Mostar in particular
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this podcast episode we’ll take a closer look at the relationship between the different ethnic groups in Mostar after the Balkan wars. What ...
How important are traditional values for Putin’s support?
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How important are traditional values for Putin’s support? How are they related to the war in Ukraine? And what does the future look like for the Put...
Most people aren’t radicalized
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why are some communities more likely to experience violent extremism than others? And why do most people living in enabling environments stay clear of...
Useful or useless? The Ukraine UN ambassador's take on the UN Security Council
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Has Russia's invation of Ukraine pushed the UN Security Council to the brink of existential crisis?As one of the veto powers, Russia is blocking all r...
The EU’s role in European security and defence
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On the 21 of March 2022, the Council of the EU adopted a Strategic Compass, a roadmap for the EU to become a stronger security and defense actor. But ...
Is this the end of academic freedom in Russia?
20 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The eyes of the world are now pointed towards the horrible war in Ukraine. But right on the other side of the border, a concerning trend has been taki...
Can Europe get out of Russian gas?
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After the invasion of Ukraine, Europeans are now rethinking its relationship with Russia, and its dependence on Russian gas. There is a strong desire ...
The Ukraine war and the NATO responses in the Baltic and the High North regions
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On March 24, all Heads of State and Government in NATO met in Brussels for an Extraordinary NATO Summit to discuss NATO's response to the ongoing war ...
Europe, Norway, and the Ukraine crisis
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How does the war in Ukraine affect security, trade, economy, and migration in Europe and in Norway?With Mark Leonard (Director, ECFR) and Ulf Sverdrup...
NATO's future at a time of war
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A discussion with the Head of NATO's Policy Planning Unit, Dr Benedetta Berti, about the new security situation in Europe and NATOs new Strategic Conc...
Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina on freedom of speech in Chechnya
10 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Novaya Gazeta is one of the few remaining independent media outlets in Russia - still able to provide critical, fact-oriented and objective informatio...
Fra arkivet: 20 år etter 11. september
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Vi ser nærmere på utviklingen de 20 årene som har gått etter 11. september 2001.Dette er et opptak av et NUPI-seminar som ble holdt i regi av Kons...
Putin and Covid-19
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We're taking a closer look at the Russian regime and the Covid-19 pandemic.These last few weeks we've seen daily records of new cases of Covid-19 in R...
Is America turning its back on Europe?
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Recent events, such as the ill-prepared evacuation from Afghanistan and the secret negotiation over Australian submarines at the expense of France, ha...
Islam and the North Caucasus
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does Islam look like in the North Caucasus, which is home to so many different cultures and religions? And what does the younger generation of Mu...
Utviklingen i det digitale trusselbildet
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Siden 2019 har antallet alvorlige digitale hendelser per år blitt tredoblet. Hvordan ser dette nye trusselbildet ut?Dette er et opptak fra seminaret ...
AUKUS and its implications for Asia, US-European relations and non-proliferation
12 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What does the AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the US and UK mean for security in Asia, for the US-China rivalry, and for US-Europe relat...
Norge og det internasjonale spillet om vaksiner
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I alle land raser debatten om vaksiner mot Covid-19: Hvem har fått, hvem skal få og har strategien vært god nok? Men debatten er oftest nasjonal, o...
Governance, Fragility and Insurgency in the Sahel
05 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Once a region that rarely featured in debates about global security, the Sahel has become increasingly topical as it confronts the international commu...
The border conflict between China and India and consequences for nuclear relations
22 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The border conflict between China and India is heating up again. This spring, there were clashes between the two Asian giants, that resulted in casual...
What do Norwegians think about foreign policy?
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The world is changing, fast. How do Norwegians react to these changes, and what do they think about Norway's foreign policy?In this podcast we take a ...
25 år med EØS
22 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Hvilken betydning har EØS-avtalen hatt for Norge etter 25 år? Hvilke utfordringer og muligheter ligger i avtalen?22. november inviterte tidsskriftet...
Why populism?
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Who are the new populists? And how did these movements emerge?Rogers Brubaker, Professor of Sociology at UCLA and University of Oslo, talks about the ...
The risk of war and the future of the Persian Gulf
01 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation between the Iranian Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, and NUPI Director Ulf Sverdrup. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for ...
The War on Journalism
04 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Peter Greste was in 2014 arrested in Egypt and charged with terrorism. It ended with 400 days behind bars. Greste argues that this is an ex...
Negotiating with tough partners
16 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As the apparently stalled talks over North Korea’s nuclear program attest to, international diplomacy can be a grueling business. Even under conditi...
Mot et nytt våpenkappløp i Europa og Asia?
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Verden kan stå overfor et nytt kjernevåpenkappløp etter at USA og Russland nylig trakk seg fra INF-avtalen.I denne episoden av NUPI Podcast, som bl...
Huawei - en risiko eller ikke?
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I begynnelsen av 2019 ble Huawei midtpunktet i en omfattende debatt om selskapet er til å stole på. NUPI og SimulaMet inviterte derfor til samtale p...
Can blockchain save journalism?
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Professional journalism is under pressure worldwide. Walid Al-Saqaf argues that the underlying technology for Bitcoin could be a solution to the probl...
Chinese cyber security and consequences for Europe
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese tech giants like Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, Baidu and WeChat have become well established names all over the world. Some of them are competing to bu...
Norge og Europa: Hvilken fremtid vil du ha?
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
I 2019 er det 25 år siden EØS-avtalen trådte i kraft. Det betyr at de som er født på midten av nittitallet og senere ikke kan huske et liv uten d...
Is the EU ready to handle the major challenges it is facing?
21 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ivan Krastev reflects on the future of the EU, and whether the union is ready to handle major challenges such as migration, the spread of right-wing p...
Normal is over: "Make America great again" and the consequences for NATO and Europe
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Constanze Stelzenmüller at the Military Power Seminar 2018 giving her look on the status of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for mor...
The threats from Hybrid Warfare
31 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last few years, and especially in the wake of Russian actions in Ukraine, hybrid warfare—sometimes referred to as hybrid threats—has gain...
Special Friendships in Global Politics
23 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two men watching a basketball game, chatting and eating hot dogs one day in 2012 in Ohio might not seem like geopolitics. But, as we learn in Senior r...
Norge og en verden i endring
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ine Eriksen Søreide, Espen Barth Eide og Ulf Sverdrup i samtale om en ny stortingsmelding om Norges rolle i det multilaterale systemet.Fra Litteratur...
Global Disorder and Distrust: The Democratic Capitalism In Crisis
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
How can we secure the future of democratic capitalism in a world where you don’t know who to trust? Hear Wolfgang Streeck (Emeritus Director, Max Pl...
How to protect critical infrastructure against cyberattacks?
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Chertoff shares his experiences from his time as United States Secretary of Homeland Security, and talks about how we best can secure critical...
Is Russia on a collision course with the West?
07 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Since his Munich Security conference speech in 2007 Vladimir Putin has identified the West as Public Enemy No 1. Since then he has employed a variety ...
The International Cyber Diplomacy Agenda
25 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, the group of experts that set out to find common ground for good state behavior in cyberspace, broke down. Cyber expert Karsten Geier propo...
What will happen to Europe after Brexit?
19 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When the UK leaves the EU in March 2019, the political ballgame in Brussels will change profoundly. We don’t yet know exactly what the consequences ...
Global disorder and distrust – Trump as a symptom
20 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
What are the consequences of American distrust in the political elite for international politics? Daniel Drezner and Ole Jacob Sending discusses this ...
Global disorder and distrust – the Middle East
18 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A conversation between Morten Bøås (NUPI) and Dlawer Ala'Aladeen on the distrust in the Middle East. This is a part of a new NUPI seminar series loo...
Global governance of cyberspace - opportunities and challenges, with Marina Kaljurand
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What are the biggest global challenges to the stability of cyberspace today? To what extent can norms and policy development guide responsible state a...
Norsk sikkerhets- og forsvarspolitikk under lupen
07 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Ansvarlig redaktør for faktisk.no, Kristoffer Egeberg, snakker om sin nye bok «Fredsnasjonen Norge». Sammen med Karsten Friis og Halvard Leira ved ...
A stronger Europe in a fragile world
24 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Nathalie Tocci talks about her book on EU's Global Strategy that give an unique insight to EU's internal processes.Tocci is the Director of Insitu...