Christer Pursiainen
Biographic Data
| ID | 4096900 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Christer Pursiainen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Christer |
| FAMILY NAME | Pursiainen |
| SIGNATURE | PURSIAINEN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | UiT The Arctic University of Norway |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5611-1701 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 18 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Countering Disinformation as Community Resilience
Disinformation has become a systemic challenge to democratic governance, eroding trust, weakening social cohesion, and complicating the work of public institutions. This article reframes the issue as a question of community resilience and examines how such resilience can be assessed at the local level. Building on resilience theory and indicator-based methodology, it develops a maturity-model framework across four domains: policy, governance, and…
“What is psychological in psychological defence? Revisiting the Nordic total defence doctrines”
Total defence as multilevel governance
Once rooted in the Cold War experience of small and nonaligned European states, total defense has reemerged across Northern and Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are at the forefront of this revival, making total defense central to national security and societal resilience. This article examines why these three structurally similar states—facing nearly identical strategic pressure…
Societal resilience as an interdisciplinary research programme? Perspectives and challenges
A discipline without a name? Contrasting three fields dealing with hazards and disaster
A growing number of research fields have been striving for recognition as an academic discipline. Rather than argue that ‘our field’ should also be recognised as such, we stop to ask two fundamental questions. Our first question concerns whether and how disciplinary concerns would benefit research fields dealing with hazards and disasters. Second, we reflect on the implications of not having a broadly accepted name referring to ‘our’ body of scho…
Russian Modernization
The Psychology of Foreign Policy
The Arctic and Africa in China’s Foreign Policy
The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly reflect the overall grand strategy of a country th…
Cyberspace Effects on Civil Society. The Ultimate Game-Changer or Not
The article studies the effects of the emergence of cyberspace, or digitization, on civil society, and develops an analytical framework to that effect. It is distinguished between four types of civil societies: apolitical, political, transnational, and uncivic. Each type of civil society is considered separately vis-à-vis cyberspace developments in order to understand what kind of civil society is enhanced by these developments and, conversely, w…
The steppe tradition in international relations
Iver Neumann and Einar Wigen, experts on Russia and Turkey respectively, have combined their knowledge to author a ‘macro-history’ or an ‘international historical-sociological work’ on the development of polities in the area commonly known as Eurasia. The authors identify what they term the six-millennium-old steppe tradition, or nomadic culture, in this part of the world, in contrast with the sedentary tradition that has characterized European s…
Russian Foreign Policy and International Relations Theory
An original and challenging examination of how to transform post-Sovietological study of Soviet and Russian foreign policy into a more integrated part of the Social Sciences and International Relations Theory. This book represents the first detailed and sustained synthesis international relations theory and Soviet/Russian foreign and security policy in academic literature.
The Psychological Dimension of Russian Foreign Policy
This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature endeavouring to explain Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.While much of the debate relies on the grand theories of International Relations such as realism, liberalism, or constructivism, this article approaches the puzzle from a psychological point of view and discusses several middle-range theories within this genre.These theories are examined sympathetically but cri…
Russian Foreign Policy and International Relations Theory
Initiating Trust in High Politics
Trust is central to international politics. Trust-related theoretical arguments can be divided between rationalist, cultural and psychological schools. We present concise reviews of these approaches, emphasizing the initial trust-creation phase, and apply these factors to our historical case: the emergence of a fragile interpersonal trust between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan before and during their first meeting in Geneva in 1985. Based on…
The Challenges for European Critical Infrastructure Protection
Critical Infrastructure Protection has become a new field of European integration. This article identifies some of the challenges on this road towards a more shared approach. It argues that while the very concept of critical infrastructure is in flux, the whole approach is challenged by the more general approach that concentrates on resilience of societal functions instead of mere protection of infrastructures. The article also claims that it is …
Crisis Decision-Making in Finland
This article reviews 17 Finnish crises since the Second World War from a perspective of three sets of questions derived from the theoretical literature. The questions deal with the construction of crisis, formation of the decision-making unit and rationality of decision-making. Although it is not possible to find a fully regular pattern of a particular type of crisis behaviour, some general observations can be made. In Finland, decision-making is…
Western Models and the 'Russian Idea
Pacta Sunt Servanda? The development of the sense of community and the principle of obligation in Soviet and Russian doctrines of international law
The role and meaning of international norm‐based co‐operation is widely debated within the discipline of International Relations. The so‐called reflectivists stress the role of higher normative frameworks in order to understand compliance in individual cases, emphasizing the role of a shared sense of community based on international law. Taking these assertions seriously and examining Soviet and Russian discourse on international law from this pe…
The Psychological Dimension of Russian Foreign Policy
This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature endeavouring to explain Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.While much of the debate relies on the grand theories of International Relations such as realism, liberalism, or constructivism, this article approaches the puzzle from a psychological point of view and discusses several middle-range theories within this genre.These theories are examined sympathetically but cri…
Crisis Decision-Making in Finland
This article reviews 17 Finnish crises since the Second World War from a perspective of three sets of questions derived from the theoretical literature. The questions deal with the construction of crisis, formation of the decision-making unit and rationality of decision-making. Although it is not possible to find a fully regular pattern of a particular type of crisis behaviour, some general observations can be made. In Finland, decision-making is…
Western Models and the 'Russian Idea
The Challenges for European Critical Infrastructure Protection
Critical Infrastructure Protection has become a new field of European integration. This article identifies some of the challenges on this road towards a more shared approach. It argues that while the very concept of critical infrastructure is in flux, the whole approach is challenged by the more general approach that concentrates on resilience of societal functions instead of mere protection of infrastructures. The article also claims that it is …
Cyberspace Effects on Civil Society. The Ultimate Game-Changer or Not
The article studies the effects of the emergence of cyberspace, or digitization, on civil society, and develops an analytical framework to that effect. It is distinguished between four types of civil societies: apolitical, political, transnational, and uncivic. Each type of civil society is considered separately vis-à-vis cyberspace developments in order to understand what kind of civil society is enhanced by these developments and, conversely, w…
The steppe tradition in international relations
Iver Neumann and Einar Wigen, experts on Russia and Turkey respectively, have combined their knowledge to author a ‘macro-history’ or an ‘international historical-sociological work’ on the development of polities in the area commonly known as Eurasia. The authors identify what they term the six-millennium-old steppe tradition, or nomadic culture, in this part of the world, in contrast with the sedentary tradition that has characterized European s…
Pacta Sunt Servanda? The development of the sense of community and the principle of obligation in Soviet and Russian doctrines of international law
The role and meaning of international norm‐based co‐operation is widely debated within the discipline of International Relations. The so‐called reflectivists stress the role of higher normative frameworks in order to understand compliance in individual cases, emphasizing the role of a shared sense of community based on international law. Taking these assertions seriously and examining Soviet and Russian discourse on international law from this pe…
Western Models and the 'Russian Idea
Crisis Decision-Making in Finland
This article reviews 17 Finnish crises since the Second World War from a perspective of three sets of questions derived from the theoretical literature. The questions deal with the construction of crisis, formation of the decision-making unit and rationality of decision-making. Although it is not possible to find a fully regular pattern of a particular type of crisis behaviour, some general observations can be made. In Finland, decision-making is…
The Challenges for European Critical Infrastructure Protection
Critical Infrastructure Protection has become a new field of European integration. This article identifies some of the challenges on this road towards a more shared approach. It argues that while the very concept of critical infrastructure is in flux, the whole approach is challenged by the more general approach that concentrates on resilience of societal functions instead of mere protection of infrastructures. The article also claims that it is …
Initiating Trust in High Politics
Trust is central to international politics. Trust-related theoretical arguments can be divided between rationalist, cultural and psychological schools. We present concise reviews of these approaches, emphasizing the initial trust-creation phase, and apply these factors to our historical case: the emergence of a fragile interpersonal trust between Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan before and during their first meeting in Geneva in 1985. Based on…
Russian Foreign Policy and International Relations Theory
An original and challenging examination of how to transform post-Sovietological study of Soviet and Russian foreign policy into a more integrated part of the Social Sciences and International Relations Theory. This book represents the first detailed and sustained synthesis international relations theory and Soviet/Russian foreign and security policy in academic literature.
The Psychological Dimension of Russian Foreign Policy
This article contributes to the growing scholarly literature endeavouring to explain Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.While much of the debate relies on the grand theories of International Relations such as realism, liberalism, or constructivism, this article approaches the puzzle from a psychological point of view and discusses several middle-range theories within this genre.These theories are examined sympathetically but cri…
Russian Foreign Policy and International Relations Theory
Cyberspace Effects on Civil Society. The Ultimate Game-Changer or Not
The article studies the effects of the emergence of cyberspace, or digitization, on civil society, and develops an analytical framework to that effect. It is distinguished between four types of civil societies: apolitical, political, transnational, and uncivic. Each type of civil society is considered separately vis-à-vis cyberspace developments in order to understand what kind of civil society is enhanced by these developments and, conversely, w…
The steppe tradition in international relations
Iver Neumann and Einar Wigen, experts on Russia and Turkey respectively, have combined their knowledge to author a ‘macro-history’ or an ‘international historical-sociological work’ on the development of polities in the area commonly known as Eurasia. The authors identify what they term the six-millennium-old steppe tradition, or nomadic culture, in this part of the world, in contrast with the sedentary tradition that has characterized European s…
The Psychology of Foreign Policy
The Arctic and Africa in China’s Foreign Policy
The article discusses China’s policies in and towards the Arctic and Africa within a comparative perspective. To what extent is China’s policy adaptable to different conditions? What does this adaptability tell us about China’s ascendant great-power role in the world in general? What is the message to the Arctic and Africa respectively? The article concludes that China’s regional strategies aptly reflect the overall grand strategy of a country th…
A discipline without a name? Contrasting three fields dealing with hazards and disaster
A growing number of research fields have been striving for recognition as an academic discipline. Rather than argue that ‘our field’ should also be recognised as such, we stop to ask two fundamental questions. Our first question concerns whether and how disciplinary concerns would benefit research fields dealing with hazards and disasters. Second, we reflect on the implications of not having a broadly accepted name referring to ‘our’ body of scho…
Russian Modernization
Societal resilience as an interdisciplinary research programme? Perspectives and challenges
Countering Disinformation as Community Resilience
Disinformation has become a systemic challenge to democratic governance, eroding trust, weakening social cohesion, and complicating the work of public institutions. This article reframes the issue as a question of community resilience and examines how such resilience can be assessed at the local level. Building on resilience theory and indicator-based methodology, it develops a maturity-model framework across four domains: policy, governance, and…
“What is psychological in psychological defence? Revisiting the Nordic total defence doctrines”
Total defence as multilevel governance
Once rooted in the Cold War experience of small and nonaligned European states, total defense has reemerged across Northern and Eastern Europe in response to Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior. Finland, Norway, and Sweden are at the forefront of this revival, making total defense central to national security and societal resilience. This article examines why these three structurally similar states—facing nearly identical strategic pressure…
Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Foreign policy (4 works) · International relations (4 works) · Context (archaeology (3 works)