Morten Skumsrud Andersen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3687803 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Morten Skumsrud Andersen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Morten Skumsrud |
| FAMILY NAME | Andersen |
| SIGNATURE | ANDERSEN M S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Norwegian Institute of International Affairs |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4586-2459 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
“Ambassador, you’re really spoiling us!” Diplomatic gifts and profligate autocrats
Qatar’s “unconditional” gift of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 to Donald Trump serves as a reminder that states have long used diplomatic gifts to impress others, forge bonds, and secure favorable treatment. However, in an age where citizens and media outlets routinely scrutinize public spending, there is good reason to think that not all governments are able to justify lavishing large sums on such interactions. In this paper, we test the claim that…
How empires emerge
The ‘rise and fall’ of empires has become a familiar trope. However, the rise is often taken for granted. The theories of hierarchical emergence we have usually focus on state formation, while studies of empire tend to look at how they are maintained or fall. In this article, I develop a framework for thinking about imperial emergence that goes beyond conquest or expansion. I call it an imperial ‘pincer movement’: empires emerge by simultaneously…
The Chinese are coming! US think tanks and the Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and North Africa
Anarchy Is What the Balance of Power Made of It: Two Core Concepts and the Public/Private Distinction in International Relations
In this article, I question a familiar assumption in International Relations (IR): that the balance of power and anarchy are mutually reinforcing concepts. I argue instead that this relationship is neither natural nor necessary. Modern understandings of anarchy do not reflect timeless features of international politics, but are historically contingent outcomes of changes in how the balance of power concept itself has been understood and deployed.…
The unsolicited rocket: A Story of Science, Technology, and Future Wars
This article investigates the puzzling case of the unsolicited rocket: a Norwegian research establishment successfully developed a weapon system that no one wanted or had asked for that was later widely adopted. We argue that the 'Terne' weapon existed not because it was needed based on rational calculations about efficiency, but because of the narratives, coalitions, and competitive dynamics that surrounded it and made it useful. Conventionally,…
Holdninger til utenlandske investeringer fra Kina i de nordiske land
Hva er holdningene i de nordiske landene til utenlandske investeringer? Spiller det noen rolle for befolkningen hvor de utenlandske investeringene kommer fra? Er man mer skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor noen sektorer av økonomien, mens man er mindre skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor andre sektorer? Dette essayet presenterer resultatene fra en omfattende spørreundersøkelse blant befolkningene i alle de nordiske landene…
Engasjementspolitikk på autopilot: Fredsbygging, fredsbevaring og fredsmegling under Børge Brende
FN er og har lenge vaert
Brende, Kina og en skiftende verdensorden1
Norges normalisering med Kina knytter an til sentrale, strukturelle utviklingstrekk i internasjonal politikk - en trend hvor den liberale verdensordenens vakuum blir fylt av Kina når USA trekker seg ut, men også at denne ordenen blir sakte undergravet ved at Kina sikrer seg «andeler» i lands politiske relasjoner. Det kan være klokt ta slike mer overordnede perspektiver med i beregningen når man skal vurdere betydningen og mulige konsekvenser av d…
Semi-cores in imperial relations: The cases of Scotland and Norway
Recently, the field of International Relations has seen increased interest in international hierarchy, and also an upswing in the analytical study of imperial logics of rule. Nonetheless, existing structural models of empire focus on core-periphery dynamics, and so cannot explain polities that display elements of both core and periphery. Therefore, I offer the new concept of ‘semi-cores’. Semi-cores are a specific form of historical political ass…
En ny opprinnelse? Om 1800-tallet som startskuddet for dagens internasjonal politikk
The Danish Empire and Norway’s Place Therein
This article argues that Norway’s political status at the point when it was pried from Denmark by the Great Powers in 1814 was that of a semi-core in an empire. The basic premise of the paper is that Denmark and Norway both were polities, with a polity being a social unit that has a distinct identity, a capacity to mobilize persons and a degree of institutionalization and hierarchy. The article begins with a nutshell conceptual history of ‘empire…
Hva var Norge i det danske imperiet? - Skottland og Norge som semi-sentra
Legitimacy in State-Building: A Review of the IR Literature1
In this article, which focuses on different concepts of state-building and legitimacy as used in the mainstream International Relations (IR) literature, I suggest that recent debates may be categorized in a two-by-two matrix. The axes concern the choice between a normative or a sociological perspective on the one hand, and a focus on state institutions or on society on the other. The article identifies an empiricist-sociological approach. Still, …
Practices as Models: A Methodology with an Illustration Concerning Wampum Diplomacy
The everyday meaning of ‘practice’ is something like concrete ‘doings’ or ‘what is being done’ in a social setting. Its everyday counter-concept is theory. Intuitively, this may lead us to think of practices as what is really going on in the world, as opposed to theories or models. This commonsensical meaning of practices reinforces the separation between theory and empirical reality. We argue that such an understanding has informed much of the o…
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson: The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations
Liberia og fredsbygging: En institusjonell forskningsagenda
Det portugisiske imperiet – Handel, ideologi og misericórdias
Bokspalte
Practices as Models: A Methodology with an Illustration Concerning Wampum Diplomacy
The everyday meaning of ‘practice’ is something like concrete ‘doings’ or ‘what is being done’ in a social setting. Its everyday counter-concept is theory. Intuitively, this may lead us to think of practices as what is really going on in the world, as opposed to theories or models. This commonsensical meaning of practices reinforces the separation between theory and empirical reality. We argue that such an understanding has informed much of the o…
Semi-cores in imperial relations: The cases of Scotland and Norway
Recently, the field of International Relations has seen increased interest in international hierarchy, and also an upswing in the analytical study of imperial logics of rule. Nonetheless, existing structural models of empire focus on core-periphery dynamics, and so cannot explain polities that display elements of both core and periphery. Therefore, I offer the new concept of ‘semi-cores’. Semi-cores are a specific form of historical political ass…
The unsolicited rocket: A Story of Science, Technology, and Future Wars
This article investigates the puzzling case of the unsolicited rocket: a Norwegian research establishment successfully developed a weapon system that no one wanted or had asked for that was later widely adopted. We argue that the 'Terne' weapon existed not because it was needed based on rational calculations about efficiency, but because of the narratives, coalitions, and competitive dynamics that surrounded it and made it useful. Conventionally,…
Anarchy Is What the Balance of Power Made of It: Two Core Concepts and the Public/Private Distinction in International Relations
In this article, I question a familiar assumption in International Relations (IR): that the balance of power and anarchy are mutually reinforcing concepts. I argue instead that this relationship is neither natural nor necessary. Modern understandings of anarchy do not reflect timeless features of international politics, but are historically contingent outcomes of changes in how the balance of power concept itself has been understood and deployed.…
Holdninger til utenlandske investeringer fra Kina i de nordiske land
Hva er holdningene i de nordiske landene til utenlandske investeringer? Spiller det noen rolle for befolkningen hvor de utenlandske investeringene kommer fra? Er man mer skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor noen sektorer av økonomien, mens man er mindre skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor andre sektorer? Dette essayet presenterer resultatene fra en omfattende spørreundersøkelse blant befolkningene i alle de nordiske landene…
Engasjementspolitikk på autopilot: Fredsbygging, fredsbevaring og fredsmegling under Børge Brende
FN er og har lenge vaert
Brende, Kina og en skiftende verdensorden1
Norges normalisering med Kina knytter an til sentrale, strukturelle utviklingstrekk i internasjonal politikk - en trend hvor den liberale verdensordenens vakuum blir fylt av Kina når USA trekker seg ut, men også at denne ordenen blir sakte undergravet ved at Kina sikrer seg «andeler» i lands politiske relasjoner. Det kan være klokt ta slike mer overordnede perspektiver med i beregningen når man skal vurdere betydningen og mulige konsekvenser av d…
Liberia og fredsbygging: En institusjonell forskningsagenda
Bokspalte
Det portugisiske imperiet – Handel, ideologi og misericórdias
Liberia og fredsbygging: En institusjonell forskningsagenda
Patrick Thaddeus Jackson: The Conduct of Inquiry in International Relations
Legitimacy in State-Building: A Review of the IR Literature1
In this article, which focuses on different concepts of state-building and legitimacy as used in the mainstream International Relations (IR) literature, I suggest that recent debates may be categorized in a two-by-two matrix. The axes concern the choice between a normative or a sociological perspective on the one hand, and a focus on state institutions or on society on the other. The article identifies an empiricist-sociological approach. Still, …
Practices as Models: A Methodology with an Illustration Concerning Wampum Diplomacy
The everyday meaning of ‘practice’ is something like concrete ‘doings’ or ‘what is being done’ in a social setting. Its everyday counter-concept is theory. Intuitively, this may lead us to think of practices as what is really going on in the world, as opposed to theories or models. This commonsensical meaning of practices reinforces the separation between theory and empirical reality. We argue that such an understanding has informed much of the o…
Hva var Norge i det danske imperiet? - Skottland og Norge som semi-sentra
En ny opprinnelse? Om 1800-tallet som startskuddet for dagens internasjonal politikk
The Danish Empire and Norway’s Place Therein
This article argues that Norway’s political status at the point when it was pried from Denmark by the Great Powers in 1814 was that of a semi-core in an empire. The basic premise of the paper is that Denmark and Norway both were polities, with a polity being a social unit that has a distinct identity, a capacity to mobilize persons and a degree of institutionalization and hierarchy. The article begins with a nutshell conceptual history of ‘empire…
Semi-cores in imperial relations: The cases of Scotland and Norway
Recently, the field of International Relations has seen increased interest in international hierarchy, and also an upswing in the analytical study of imperial logics of rule. Nonetheless, existing structural models of empire focus on core-periphery dynamics, and so cannot explain polities that display elements of both core and periphery. Therefore, I offer the new concept of ‘semi-cores’. Semi-cores are a specific form of historical political ass…
Engasjementspolitikk på autopilot: Fredsbygging, fredsbevaring og fredsmegling under Børge Brende
FN er og har lenge vaert
Brende, Kina og en skiftende verdensorden1
Norges normalisering med Kina knytter an til sentrale, strukturelle utviklingstrekk i internasjonal politikk - en trend hvor den liberale verdensordenens vakuum blir fylt av Kina når USA trekker seg ut, men også at denne ordenen blir sakte undergravet ved at Kina sikrer seg «andeler» i lands politiske relasjoner. Det kan være klokt ta slike mer overordnede perspektiver med i beregningen når man skal vurdere betydningen og mulige konsekvenser av d…
Holdninger til utenlandske investeringer fra Kina i de nordiske land
Hva er holdningene i de nordiske landene til utenlandske investeringer? Spiller det noen rolle for befolkningen hvor de utenlandske investeringene kommer fra? Er man mer skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor noen sektorer av økonomien, mens man er mindre skeptisk til utenlandske investeringer innenfor andre sektorer? Dette essayet presenterer resultatene fra en omfattende spørreundersøkelse blant befolkningene i alle de nordiske landene…
The unsolicited rocket: A Story of Science, Technology, and Future Wars
This article investigates the puzzling case of the unsolicited rocket: a Norwegian research establishment successfully developed a weapon system that no one wanted or had asked for that was later widely adopted. We argue that the 'Terne' weapon existed not because it was needed based on rational calculations about efficiency, but because of the narratives, coalitions, and competitive dynamics that surrounded it and made it useful. Conventionally,…
The Chinese are coming! US think tanks and the Belt and Road Initiative in the Middle East and North Africa
Anarchy Is What the Balance of Power Made of It: Two Core Concepts and the Public/Private Distinction in International Relations
In this article, I question a familiar assumption in International Relations (IR): that the balance of power and anarchy are mutually reinforcing concepts. I argue instead that this relationship is neither natural nor necessary. Modern understandings of anarchy do not reflect timeless features of international politics, but are historically contingent outcomes of changes in how the balance of power concept itself has been understood and deployed.…
“Ambassador, you’re really spoiling us!” Diplomatic gifts and profligate autocrats
Qatar’s “unconditional” gift of a $400 million Boeing 747-8 to Donald Trump serves as a reminder that states have long used diplomatic gifts to impress others, forge bonds, and secure favorable treatment. However, in an age where citizens and media outlets routinely scrutinize public spending, there is good reason to think that not all governments are able to justify lavishing large sums on such interactions. In this paper, we test the claim that…
How empires emerge
The ‘rise and fall’ of empires has become a familiar trope. However, the rise is often taken for granted. The theories of hierarchical emergence we have usually focus on state formation, while studies of empire tend to look at how they are maintained or fall. In this article, I develop a framework for thinking about imperial emergence that goes beyond conquest or expansion. I call it an imperial ‘pincer movement’: empires emerge by simultaneously…
Political science (15 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Economics (4 works) · Global Peace and Security Dynamics (4 works) · International relations (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works)