What “Chernobyl” Teaches Us About the Superiority of Democracy

Posted by and & filed under Governance

Authoritarian structures made Chernobyl an unavoidable accident.

Photo: Jorge Franganillo CC

The HBO series “Chernobyl” has garnered rave reviews all over the world. Norwegian newspapers have been almost unanimous in their praise of the series. And with good reason. This is television drama at its very best.

One largely overlooked aspect of the series is what it teaches us about some of the completely fundamental differences between non-democratic and democratic regimes.

No doubt this was not one of the objectives of the series creators, but “Chernobyl” provides an unrivaled introduction into how and why democracy is superior to authoritarian forms of government in the longer term. The series shows why it will be the world’s democracies, not China, that will continue to dominate in the 21st century.

Perhaps the most important message conveyed by the series is that all forms of authoritarian regimes ultimately suffer from fundamental structural weaknesses.

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How conflict leads to biased development aid

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With two special reports (here and here) released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just after the summer, the awareness of the consequences of climate change and the measures needed to limit these impacts is higher than ever before. Regrettably, there is not a one-to-one relationship between responsibility and consequences, and the burden… Read more »

The Iterative Relationship Between Technology and International Security

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Photo: Alexandre Debiève CC

Scientific breakthroughs and technological innovations are often subject to public discussion about their capacity to affect international security, either by their military exploitation or their uptake and re-appropriation through non-state actors and terrorists. While accompanying proliferation and militarisation concerns are not new, the challenge of governing emerging technologies is as much about their often-unknown technical affordances as the way in which they capture the imagination of innovators, policy-makers, and public communities.

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Preventing the Work of Rescue Vessels in the Mediterranean Will Not Save More Migrants

Posted by & filed under Humanitarianism, Migration

The Norwegian-registered vessel Ocean Viking, operated by Médecins Sans Frontières, has recently been at the centre of a debate that has become dominated by one assumption: that search-and-rescue (SAR) operations are encouraging people to attempt to cross the Mediterranean

Ai Weiwei’s Soleil Levant – migrants’ lifejackets. This artwork in Copenhagen, by renowned Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei, is made up of actual life jackets used by migrants crossing to the Greek island of Lesbos in search of safety or a better life in Europe. Photo: TeaMeister via Flickr.

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A Migrant in the Common European House: Pavel Baev Interviewed by Stein Tønnesson

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Pavel Baev in 2008. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB scanpix

Pavel Baev, interviewed by Stein Tønnesson

In the late 1980s, when I took part in drafting speeches for Mikhail Gorbachev underpinning his concept of an ‘All-European House’, one part of my work was to strive towards the elimination of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. Nothing came out of it at the time. Now, after more than 25 years at PRIO and having become a Norwegian citizen, the same question has taken on a new complexity with the worsening of East-West relations. I want to return to the work I did at the time, and co-operate with my PRIO colleagues on a project aimed to reduce the not negligible risk of a limited nuclear war in Europe.

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The authoritarian surveillant assemblage: Authoritarian state surveillance in Turkey

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In January 2018, the Turkish military and allied Syrian rebel forces launched a military operation against Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units) fighters in Afrin in Northern Syria. In the aftermath, Turkish authorities arrested, detained, and prosecuted 648 people for social media posts criticizing the military operation. In addition to state actors, civilian informants were involved… Read more »

Sports Could Be the Greatest Ambassador Kosovo Has Ever Had

Posted by & filed under Culture and Conflict

On the evening of Tuesday, September 10, Kosovo’s national football team played England in its biggest match to date. Prior to the match, the team had gone undefeated since October 2017. The success of the national team has echoed throughout the world and the team is fast becoming Kosovo’s most successful export. #ENGKOS and Kosovo were respectively the second and sixth biggest trends worldwide on Twitter that Tuesday evening. While not the intention, the success of the national team has given Europe’s youngest (and the world’s second-youngest) state positive international exposure in a time when its sovereignty is under its most serious attack since the declaration of independence in 2008. How can success in sports be of critical value to a small state like Kosovo?

Young Kosovo national team footballers in 2011. Photo: Burim via Wikimedia Commons

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