The World Stage – Details, episodes & analysis

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, negotiations. The Havana talks and peace agreement have been acclaimed as the most gender inclusive in history. 8 years later, what is happening with the implementation of the agreement, and what are women’s roles in peace processes in Colombia today?

In this episode, NUPI’s Jenny Lorentzen sits down with Priscyll Anctil Avoine (@priscyll_), researcher in Feminist Security Studies at the Swedish Defence University, and Dag Nylander (@DagNylander), NOREF director and former mediator to the peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC-EP.

Having researched the political participation of women ex-combatants in armed conflict and peace processes in Colombia for the last 10 years, Avoine brings to the conversation the perspective of the women ex-combattants and colombian activists, while Nylander shares insights from his direct experience in the negotiations. Together, they shed light on the role of gender and women’s involvement in the Havana talks, the challenges related to implementing the 2016 agreement, as well as what lessons were learned in the Havana process that can be applied to the current negotiations with the ELN and future peace processes in Colombia.

If you want to find out more about the political engagement of women ex-combattants in Colombia, you can follow @MujerFariana (the Farianas) and @CafAnaPaz1, an organization working for reconciliation and to recover the memory of women signatories of the peace agreement.

This podcast is part of the project “Women, Peace and Security: Status Review and Study on Peace Processes in Colombia and South Sudan,” led by Jenny Lorentzen (@jennylorentzen).

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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 and Sudan?

In this episode of The World Stage, Solomon Dersso (Amani Africa) and Cedric de Coning (NUPI) discuss this topic.

Solomon Dersso is the founding director of Amani Africa, an independent pan-African policy research, training and consulting think tank with expertise on the African Union’s policy processes, including especially the work of the Peace and Security Council.

Cedric de Coning is Research Professor in the research group on peace, conflict and development at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI).

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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 thousands of military personnel, UN police, and other civilians from more than 120 countries have participated in UN peacekeeping operations.

So, looking only at the numbers, surely peacekeeping operations must have been a success? Recently, however, several countries have asked the UN to leave, including Mali and the Democratic Republic of Congo. So, what is this a symptom of? Where are we, 75 years after the first UN peacekeepers set their foot on foreign ground? Is this still functional? Has it worked so far? And if so, will it continue to do so in the future? What is the future for peacekeeping?

In this episode of the NUPI podcast The World Stage, we take a closer look at what UN Peacekeeping mission are and whether they have been successful.

In this episode you’ll hear from David Haeri, (Director, Policy, Evaluation and Training Division, UN Peacekeeping) Annika Hilding Norberg (Head of Peace Operations and Peacebuilding, Geneva Centre for Security Policy), Tor Henrik Andersen (Minister Counsellor, Peace and Security, Africa, Norwegian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York) and NUPI Research Professor Cedric de Coning.

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In this episode NUPI's Ole Jacob Sending sits down with Professor Dan Nexon of Georgetown University to talk about how international political leadership – or hegemony – is established and undone. 

Nexon argues that hegemony is established through the supply of (public) goods – such as security – for other states. This is what the US has been doing for decades, but now China is trying to replace the US, providing alternative goods and also seeking to reduce the value of what the US has to offer.

This episode of The World Stage is a part of the Geopolitics Center, led by NUPI.

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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 technology and a Franciscan monk. He is a member of UN Secretary General's High-level Advisory Board on Artificial Intelligence and also serves as an AI advisor to none other than Pope Francis.

Joins us for an insightful conversation between Benanti and Dr. Niels Nagelhus Schia, head of NUPI’s Research Center on New Technology.

Why do we need ethics in the development of AI-technology? Is AI a sort of God? And what did the pope feel about the AI generated image of him in a white puffer coat?

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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 of the world’s 100 most influential people in AI, and Dr. Niels Nagelhus Schia, head of NUPI’s Research Center on New Technology.

Chowdhury brings a unique perspective on the intersection of technology and society, advocating for the critical need for global oversight to ensure we shape a responsible AI future.

It's not just about the code; it's about the guardians ensuring its ethical and impactful deployment.

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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 and unpredictability of complex crises.

Cedric introduced the concept of adaptive peacebuilding in a 2018 article in International Affairs, and he and his co-authors has further developed the concept and tested it in several case studies in a recently published book Adaptive Peacebuilding A New Approach to Sustaining Peace in the 21st Century. Together with Thor Olav, he discuss their findings and reflects on what constitutes the liberal model of peace and why it has come under heavy criticism, the local nature of peace processes, the agency of the people affected by conflict and how peacebuilding efforts need to continuously adapt to the complex and dynamic realities on the ground.

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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 (NUPI) and Benedicte Bull (UiO) reflect on the driver and consequences of the expansion of the BRICS group of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to also include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentine and the UAE.

What is the core project of the BRICS? Does this extremely diverse group of countries really have anything in common? Are we seeing a global resurgence of the Cold War non-alignment movement? These questions and more are discussed by the researchers who together cover a vast geopolitical space and some of the most pertinent questions of our time.

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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 ‘New Agenda for Peace’ that can help the United Nations and international community address the many complex challenges the world faces today.  

In this edition of the World Stage podcast, NUPI’s Cedric de Coning is in conversation with Asif Khan, the Director of the Policy and Mediation Division of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs of the United Nations.

The ‘old’ Agenda for Peace refers to a policy document that was first released by UN Secretary-General Boutrous Boutrous Ghali in 1992. It was a landmark policy document that framed the UN’s peace and security’s theory of change around preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

This podcast considers the main issues that the New Agenda for Peace needs is likely to address, including new issues like the climate-peace nexus, and the risks and opportunities that new technologies like Artificial Intelligence may pose for international peace and security.

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