The World Stage

In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, Cedric de Coning (NUPI) sits down with Louise Lieberknecht (formerly GRID-Arendal) who is one of the authors of a new report investigating the environmental dimensions of conflict in the Lake Chad region. The authors have examined how insecurity impacts the environment and how conflict dynamics are shaped by environmental factors. The episode is part of the NUPI led project Managing Climate, Peace and Security Risks from the Borderlands of the Lake Chad (CPS-Lake Chad). The project is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) through the Cross-border Conflict Evidence, Policy, and Trends (XCEPT) research program.

Is the liberal international order coming to an end, and what follows the era of American hegemony? In this episode of The World Stage, Senior Research Fellow Wrenn Yennie Lindgren (NUPI) sits down with Manjeet Pardesi, Associate Professor of International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, to explore the shifting foundations of global politics.Drawing on his award-winning book, Divergent Worlds, co-authored with Amitav Acharya, Pardesi introduces the concept of a "multiplex world order". Unlike traditional hegemonic or multipolar systems, a multiplex order is defined by its complexity, where non-great powers exercise significant agency and order is shaped by both material power and diverse ideas.The discussion delves into how history can provide a roadmap for our uncertain future. Pardesi contrasts the ancient Mediterranean, a paradigmatic case of hegemonic order under Rome, with the ancient Indian Ocean, which flourished as a non-hegemonic, pluralistic trading system.Key highlights of the episode include:The Rise of India: An analysis of India’s grand strategy, its "status anxiety" regarding China, and its quest to recover its historical standing as a global power.Southeast Asia as pluralistic order: Pardesi points to Southeast Asia as an example of a pluralistic regional order today, with no single center. As he states: "The region is a mix of democracies and non-democracies that engage with each other. It is a plural world that seems viable despite having no core".The Power of Small States: How countries like Norway and New Zealand can act as "connector states," spearheading high-quality trade agreements and navigating complex international identities.Variable Geometry: Understanding the "messiness" of modern international relations and why a decentered, pluralistic world might actually be a good thing.Join us for a deep dive into global history and contemporary geopolitics to understand how the world is being reshaped beyond the Western-dominated era.The World Stage is a global politics podcast from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). This episode is produced in collaboration with the Norwegian Center for Geopolitics.

What are the role of resilience and peacebuilding perspectives and approaches when it comes to preventing violent extremism? How can resilience and peace building help address the root causes of violent extremism? This is the topic for this episode of NUPI's The World Stage, and of a new book edited by this episode's guests; Ako Muto (JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development), Rui Saraiva (Miyazaki International University) and Cedric de Coning (NUPI).

Join us for a conversation on European security in a time marked by war, nuclear threats, and growing strategic uncertainty.Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising doubts about US security guarantees, Research Fellow Gine Lund Bolling (NUPI) examines Emmanuel Macron’s recent address on French nuclear policy. The French president’s remarks signal the most significant shift in the country’s nuclear posture in decades.In this episode of The World Stage, we explore what these changes to France’s nuclear strategy entail, and what implications they may have for European security. A central question is what it actually means for France to “build up” its nuclear arsenal: is it about numbers, capabilities, doctrine – or a combination of all three?

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 World Stage, Research Professor Cedric de Coning (NUPI) takes us into the heart of the Lake Chad region, and into a two-year research project examining how regional strategies are shaping peace and security.The guests in this podcast episode are Professor Freedom Onuoha (University of Nigeria, Nsukka), and Senior Research Fellow Thor Olav Iversen and Senior Research Fellow Andrew E. Yaw Tchie (both NUPI).The episode draws on findings from the project 'Managing Climate, Peace and Security Risks from the Borderlands of the Lake Chad (CPS-Lake Chad)', which investigates the role of the Regional Strategy for Stabilization, Resilience and Recovery (RS-SRR) in addressing climate-related conflict risks. The project is funded by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through the Cross-Border Conflict Evidence Policy and Trends research fund (XCEPT).

In this episode of the World Stage podcast, host Ole Jacob Sending (The Norwegian Centre for Geopolitics, NUPI) sits down with Alex Cooley (Columbia University) and Taylor St. John (NUPI) to discuss the shift toward transnational kleptocracy in US foreign policy. Drawing on a recent Foreign Affairs article, the guests explore how the second Trump administration is dismantling long-standing anti-corruption frameworks, such as restricting the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), to facilitate a system where public power is leveraged for private gain.In the podcast, the three participants discuss several examples of transnational kleptocracy. One specific example recently reported in the Wall Street Journal involves US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who have been in active talks with Kirill Dmitriev head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund. The discussions center on using a portion of frozen Russian assets—which were widely expected to be designated for Ukraine's reconstruction—to instead create what Cooley terms "slush funds" for joint American-Russian investment projects.From the role of unofficial, "nebulous" advisors to the potential pressure on allies like Norway to politicize their sovereign wealth funds, this episode provides a deep dive into how international power is being exercised, bought, and shielded in an era of "kleptocratic populism".