Emerging Powers!

The world is in change, and the big idea is that we are moving from unipolarity to multipolarity, with the new emerging powers. Last Monday, PRIO hosted a seminar, in cooperation with the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref) on emerging powers. Taking BIICST (Brazil, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa and Turkey) as its definition of who the emerging powers are (there are plenty of alternative, partly overlapping, definitions), the conference had speakers from five of the six countries in question (missing out on South Africa, due to illness in the speakers family). Pinar and Hilde W coordinated the event, which proved to be a more laboursome undertaking than any of us had anticipated. It also proved to be very worthwhile, with good contributions, stimulating debate – and new contacts.

The topic – emerging powers – and the implications of the changing global power structure, is one that we shall have to grapple with in virtually any thematic area that PRIO has an interest in.



That is also why I accepted an invitation from Noref and the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation to go to Brasilia for a conference on the 30th of March, where I gave a keynote on trends in peace and conflict. I drew heavily on the conflict data (and am thankful to all who have worked on the superb graphs and slides!), which of course generated a very interesting debate in Brazil, given that the region’s violence is almost exclusively of types not defined as armed conflict or war. During the trip, I also got the chance to talk to possible collaborating partners in Brazil. The Norwegian MFA has just launched its new Brazil strategy (which is why the ministers of development and foreign affairs were there that same week). The strategy has a crystal clear invitation for research institutes in Norway to develop collaborative relations with Brazilian institutions. Such collaboration can be on Brazil-specific issues, on concerns within the larger region, or on global themes which are of interest to both Norway and Brazil. Both the country and the region are definitely fascinating, and there is an attractive intellectual environment as well as an energy that makes collaboration attractive.

PS: To stimulate any possible emerging-powers-confusion, the picture is of a BRIC (Brazil Russia, India, China) encounter.