Stina Torjesen is an associate professor at the University of Agder. She is researching the themes emerging markets, sustainability and regional cooperation with particular emphasis on Kazakhstan, India and Afghanistan.
Stina Torjesen was previously research fellow (2005–2007) and later senior research fellow (2007-2010) at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). She has also served as project manager in the sustainability consultancy SIGLA (2010-2012).
Stina Torjesen holds a BA from the University of Cambridge and an MPhil and DPhil in international relations from the University of Oxford. Her DPhil thesis Understanding Regional Co-operation in Central Asia 1991-2004 [1] assessed the prospects for regional cooperation in Central Asia in the spheres of trade, water and security.
Publications include The Multilateral Dimension in Russian Foreign Policy, [2] (Routledge), co-edited with Elana Wilson Rowe [3] and more recently the journal article Towards a theory of ex-combatant reintegration [4]
Stina Torjesen has contributed [5] to debates on Norwegian foreign policy through public presentations, op-eds and media appearances. She has served as board member at the Oslo Labour Party International Forum (2011-2012) and as Committee member for the group International politics and economics in the Norwegian Polytechnic Society (Polyteknisk Forening) in the years 2010-2013. Stina Torjesen was also an employee representative at the NUPI board (2009-2010).[ citation needed ]
The foreign relations of Norway are based on the country's membership in NATO and within the workings of the United Nations (UN). Additionally, despite not being a member of the European Union (EU), Norway takes a part in the integration of EU through its membership in the European Economic Area. Norway's foreign ministry includes both the minister of foreign affairs and minister of international development.
In politics, soft power is the ability to co-opt rather than coerce. It involves shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Soft power is non-coercive, using culture, political values, and foreign policies to enact change. In 2012, Joseph Nye of Harvard University explained that with soft power, "the best propaganda is not propaganda", further explaining that during the Information Age, "credibility is the scarcest resource".
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is the regional intergovernmental organization and geopolitical union of states in South Asia. Its member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC comprises 3% of the world's land area, 21% of the world's population and 5.21% of the global economy, as of 2021.
In international relations, multilateralism refers to an alliance of multiple countries pursuing a common goal.
In international relations, a middle power is a sovereign state that is not a great power nor a superpower, but still has large or moderate influence and international recognition.
Joseph Samuel Nye Jr. is an American political scientist. He and Robert Keohane co-founded the international relations theory of neoliberalism, which they developed in their 1977 book Power and Interdependence. Together with Keohane, he developed the concepts of asymmetrical and complex interdependence. They also explored transnational relations and world politics in an edited volume in the 1970s. More recently, he pioneered the theory of soft power. His notion of "smart power" became popular with the use of this phrase by members of the Clinton Administration and the Obama Administration.
Aaron Louis Friedberg is an American political scientist. He served from 2003 to 2005 in the office of the Vice President of the United States as deputy assistant for national-security affairs and director of policy planning.
The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs is a Norwegian research institution based in Oslo, Norway. It was established by the Norwegian Parliament in 1959.
Geir Flikke is a professor at the University of Oslo.
Espen Barth Eide is a Norwegian politician and political scientist. He is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jonas Gahr Støre's government, having previously done so under Jens Stoltenberg. He has been a been a member of the Norwegian Parliament since 2017, representing the Labour Party. He was elected to this seat in the 2017 election, and reelected in the 2021 election. From 2017 to 2021, Eide was the Labour Party's spokesperson for Energy, Climate and Environment.
In international relations, the term smart power refers to the combination of hard power and soft power strategies. It is defined by the Center for Strategic and International Studies as "an approach that underscores the necessity of a strong military, but also invests heavily in alliances, partnerships, and institutions of all levels to expand one's influence and establish legitimacy of one's action."
Iver Brynild Neumann is a Norwegian political scientist and social anthropologist. He is Director of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute at Polhøgda, Lysaker, a position he has held since December 2019. From 2012-2017 he was the Montague Burton Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has also served as Research Director and Director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and Adjunct Professor in International Relations at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Kristian Berg Harpviken is a Norwegian sociologist and researcher, and since 2009 director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Harpviken is foremost known for his competence on Afghanistan, where he has travelled extensively and conducted multiple field works since he first engaged with the country in 1989.
Nikolai Eivindssøn Astrup is a Norwegian politician representing the Conservative Party. He served as Minister of Local Government from 2020 to 2021. Previously he served as the Minister of International Development from 2018 to 2019 in Prime Minister Erna Solberg's cabinet, being the first since Heikki Holmås from 2012 to 2013. In 2019, he also became the first Minister of Digitalisation after the Christian Democratic Party joined the Cabinet, a post he served in until 2020.
Jahn Otto Johansen was a Norwegian journalist, newspaper editor, foreign correspondent and non-fiction writer.
Pavel Kimovich Baev is a Russian-Norwegian political scientist and security scholar. He is currently a research professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) and a senior nonresident fellow at the Brookings Institution.
India's 'Connect Central Asia' Policy is a broad-based approach, including political, security, economic and cultural connections. The importance of this policy was strengthened when the Prime Minister of India visited all the five countries— Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan— in 2015.
Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh is an Iranian-American researcher, university lecturer, and United Nations consultant in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, counter-terrorism, and radicalization, best known for her work in "Human Security" and for contributions in the republics of Central Asia and Afghanistan, as cited by the New York Times and other publications as well as hundreds of scholarly publications. Currently, she is a lecturer at Sciences Po, researcher, and consultant to the United Nations.
Wahidullah Waissi is a career Afghan diplomat. He is now serving as the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand and Republic of Fiji. He worked as Director-General for Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from 2012 to 2016 overseeing regional economic cooperation and multilateral development partnerships, chaired economic diplomacy committee, coordinated Regional Economic Cooperation Conference for Afghanistan process and projects and served as a Focal Point for economic Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) of the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process.
Marc Lanteigne is a Canadian political scientist originally from Montréal. He is associate professor of Political Science at the Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, teaching international relations (IR), comparative politics, security studies and comparative political economy. Prior to that, Lanteigne was a Senior Research Associate at Department of East Asian Studies, Ruhr University Bochum, and Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Defence and Security Studies (CDSS) at Massey University in Auckland. He is Editor-in-Chief of an Arctic news website Over the Circle, a part-time lecturer at Peking University, an adjunct researcher at the Centre for Arctic Studies at the University of Iceland, Reykjavík, and a member of the board of the UK-based Polar Research and Policy Initiative (PRPI).