Ole Jacob Sending

Experts dominate all facets of global governance, from accounting practices and antitrust regulations to human rights law and environmental conservation. In this study, Ole Jacob Sending encourages a critical interrogation of the role and power of experts by unveiling the politics of the ongoing competition for authority in global governance. Drawing on insights from sociology, political science, and institutional theory, Sending challenges theories centered on particular actors’ authority, whether it is the authority of so-called epistemic communities, the moral authority of advocacy groups, or the rational-legal authority of international organizations. Using in-depth and historically oriented case studies of population and peacebuilding, he demonstrates that authority is not given nor located in any set of particular actors. Rather, continuous competition for recognition as an authority to determine what is to be governed, by whom, and for what purpose shapes global governance in fundamental ways. Advancing a field-based approach, Sending highlights the political stakes disguised by the technical language of professionals and thus opens a broader public debate over the key issues of our time.

Experts dominate all facets of global governance, from accounting practices and antitrust regulations to human rights law and environmental conservation. In this study, Ole Jacob Sending encourages a critical interrogation of the role and power of experts by unveiling the politics of the ongoing competition for authority in global governance. Drawing on insights from sociology, political science, and institutional theory, Sending challenges theories centered on particular actors’ authority, whether it is the authority of so-called epistemic communities, the moral authority of advocacy groups, or the rational-legal authority of international organizations. Using in-depth and historically oriented case studies of population and peacebuilding, he demonstrates that authority is not given nor located in any set of particular actors. Rather, continuous competition for recognition as an authority to determine what is to be governed, by whom, and for what purpose shapes global governance in fundamental ways. Advancing a field-based approach, Sending highlights the political stakes disguised by the technical language of professionals and thus opens a broader public debate over the key issues of our time.

"There have been many attempts to adapt Foucault's arguments to the study of international relations, but this powerful and provocative book is the most sustained, and arguably the most successful in showing how the governmentality approach can be adapted to the analysis of global politics."---Barry Hindess, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National UniversityA highly welcome and original contribution to contemporary debates on the shape and future of the international system and on the possibility of reconfiguring IR theory as social theory."---Mathias Albert, Bielefeld University, Germany"Iver Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending have put meat on the bones of Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality, fulfilling the hopes of long-famished students and scholars of global governance. Through their focus on specific case studies, the authors have provided a much-needed contribution to the international relations literature, one that is sure to become a staple of courses and seminars throughout the world."---Ronnie D. Lipschutz, University of California, Santa CruzWhat does globalization mean for the principle of state sovereignty and for the power and functioning of states? Whereas realists assert the continued importance of states, constructivists contend that various political entities as well as the logic of globalization itself undermine state sovereignty.Drawing on the state formation literature and on social theory, particularly the works of Weber and Foucault, Iver B. Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending question the terms of the realist-constructionist debate. Through detailed case studies, they demonstrate that states use nongovernmental organizations and international organizations indirectly to enforce social order and, ultimately, to increase their own power. At the same time, global politics is dominated by a liberal political rationality that states ignore at their peril. While states remain as strong as ever, they operate within a global polity of new hierarchies among states and between states and other actors.Iver B. Neumann is Director of Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Oslo.Ole Jacob Sending is Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, where he heads the Research Programme on Global Governance and International Organizations.Cover art credit: © iStockphoto.com/Will EvansAlso available as an e-book.

"There have been many attempts to adapt Foucault's arguments to the study of international relations, but this powerful and provocative book is the most sustained, and arguably the most successful in showing how the governmentality approach can be adapted to the analysis of global politics."---Barry Hindess, Research School of Social Sciences, The Australian National UniversityA highly welcome and original contribution to contemporary debates on the shape and future of the international system and on the possibility of reconfiguring IR theory as social theory."---Mathias Albert, Bielefeld University, Germany"Iver Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending have put meat on the bones of Michel Foucault's notion of governmentality, fulfilling the hopes of long-famished students and scholars of global governance. Through their focus on specific case studies, the authors have provided a much-needed contribution to the international relations literature, one that is sure to become a staple of courses and seminars throughout the world."---Ronnie D. Lipschutz, University of California, Santa CruzWhat does globalization mean for the principle of state sovereignty and for the power and functioning of states? Whereas realists assert the continued importance of states, constructivists contend that various political entities as well as the logic of globalization itself undermine state sovereignty.Drawing on the state formation literature and on social theory, particularly the works of Weber and Foucault, Iver B. Neumann and Ole Jacob Sending question the terms of the realist-constructionist debate. Through detailed case studies, they demonstrate that states use nongovernmental organizations and international organizations indirectly to enforce social order and, ultimately, to increase their own power. At the same time, global politics is dominated by a liberal political rationality that states ignore at their peril. While states remain as strong as ever, they operate within a global polity of new hierarchies among states and between states and other actors.Iver B. Neumann is Director of Research at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Oslo.Ole Jacob Sending is Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, where he heads the Research Programme on Global Governance and International Organizations.Cover art credit: © iStockphoto.com/Will EvansAlso available as an e-book.

I dagens globaliserte verden angår utenrikspolitikk oss alle. Av den grunn igangsatte utenriksminister Jonas Gahr Støre UD-prosjektet "Refleks -- norske interesser i en globalisert verden". Hensikten er å stimulere til bred og åpen debatt om Norges rolle i verdenssamfunnet. Rapporten Norske interesser springer ut av Refleksprosjektets arbeid. Det er den første helhetlige drøftingen av globalisering og dens utfordringer for norske interesser siden Berlinmurens fall i 1989 endret på rammene for norsk utenrikspolitikk. I sentrum av rapporten står spørsmålene: - Hva er norske interesser? - Hva er sammenhengen mellom krigen i Afghanistan, norsk sikkerhet og NATOs fremtid? - Hva betyr politisk stabilitet i Asia og Midt-Østen for Norges økonomiske fremtid? - Kan oljelandet Norge forene økonomiske interesser og hensynet til klimaproblemene? "Vi må våge å drøfte våre egne interesser i verden. Vi må gjøre oss klokere med hensyn til hvordan det norske samfunnets ulike mål og behov utfordres av globalisering, og best kan ivaretas. Vi må utfordre oss selv. Vi må våge å teste om utenrikspolitikkens etablerte svar fortsatt er gyldige", skriver Jonas Gahr Støre innledningsvis. Norske interesser er et viktig og aktuelt bidrag til den politiske debatten, og utfordrer vårt bilde av oss selv som land og våre interesser i forholdet til verden for øvrig.