Transnational Political Networks - Oslo Workshop - Center for International Affairs and World Cultures

On October 15 and 16, 2025, the Transnational Political Networks & the Future of Global Order project, supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York, convened around 20 scholars for a second workshop, with our partners in Oslo at the Norwegian Institute for International Affairs (NUPI).

The workshop, co-hosted by Mai’a K. Davis Cross and Marianne Riddervold, explored case studies of contemporary and historical transnational political networks at the societal and elite levels. These cases share three defining characteristics at various degrees: (1) ultrasocial in worldview (i.e., inclusive rather than exclusive; focused on the common good), (2) global or regional in scale with the potential for significant global impact, and (3) transformational rather than transactional in their approaches to international cooperation. Please see a summary of our case studies here.

Key insights within and across the respective scholars’ case studies further highlight why some transnational political networks achieve breakthroughs in international cooperation while others fall short. These include the role of social power in accomplishing the network’s goals, the intersection of influence between epistemic groups and transnational activism, the impact of formal versus informal mechanisms, and varying ideas of success classifications and the network’s role thereafter.

With feedback from one another and a diverse group of discussants during this workshop, scholars continued to refine their case studies in preparation for publication. They also reflected on the implications for the project overall with two keynote presentations from Iver Neumann and Alicia Sanders-Zakre. See these links for more information about these keynote speeches, which were open to the public:

Workshop Agenda

Location: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Supported by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York

Wednesday, October 15, 2025

9-10am Introduction & Framework

Mai’a K. Davis Cross, Northeastern University
Marianne Riddervold, ARENA Center for European Studies & NUPI
Discussants: Halvard Leira and Denise Garcia

10-10:45am What Makes an International Regime Strong: Epistemic communities, Transnational Advocacy Networks, and International Norms (radiation protection)

Daniel Serwer, Johns Hopkins University, US
Discussants: Benjamin de Carvalho and Tine E.J. Brøgger

10:45-11am Coffee break

11-11:45am We Are All Nature: The impact of the Harmony with Nature network in reshaping the United Nations concept of sustainable development

Patricia Rinaldi, International Relations at Faculdades de Campinas, Brazil
Discussant: Paul Beaumont and Marianne Riddervold

11:45am-12:30pm Transnational Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin

Lucas de Oliveira Paes, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway
Discussants: Tine or Ingrid and Patricia Rinaldi

12:30pm-1:30pm Lunch at NUPI

1:30-2:15pm The global coalition that stood for Ukraine: how transnational networks ensure international cooperation in the face of authoritarianism

Karolina Pomorska, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
Marianna Lovato, Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Poland
Discussants: Halvard Leira and Pernille Rieker

2:15-3pm The “Moral League” and the End of Privateering

Benjamin de Carvalho, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway
Halvard Leira, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway
Discussants: Ingrid Hjertaker and Reidar Staupe

4pm-5:30pm Public Keynote at Norwegian Nobel Institute, Alicia Sanders-Zakre

How to Achieve Nuclear Disarmament: Europe’s Role in Safeguarding the Future

Welcome: Kristian Berg Harpviken
Carnegie project and Keynote Speaker Intro: Mai’a Cross
Keynote: Alicia Sanders-Zakre
Panel Discussion: Marianne Riddervold (moderator), Alicia Sanders-Zakre, Daniel Serwer, Denise Garcia
Audience Q&A

5:30-6:15pm Reception at Norwegian Nobel Institute

Thursday, October 16, 2025

8:30am Breakfast at NUPI

9-10.30am Workshop Keynote Address: Is International Cooperation Still Possible?

Welcome: Halvard Leira
Introduction of Carnegie Project: Mai’a Cross
Introduction of keynote speaker: Halvard Leira
Keynote: Iver Neumann
Discussion Panel: Halvard Leira (moderator), Iver Neumann, Kathi Glaab, Kristian Berg Harpviken, Mai’a Cross, Marianne Riddervold
Audience Q&A

Co-organized with Discover (Outer Space Governance project)

10:30-10:45am short break

10:45-11:15 am

Reflections on the keynotes and the project overall: Iver Neumann

11:15-12:00 The Transnational Network of Polynesian Voyagers: Hōkūleʻa & Ocean Protection

Mai’a K. Davis Cross, Northeastern University
Discussants: Lucas de Oliveira Paes and Katharina Glaab

12:15-1:15pm Lunch

1:15-2pm The Beneficial Artificial Intelligence Movement

Denise Garcia, Northeastern University
Discussant: Neils Nagelhus Schia and Marianna Lovato

2-2:45pm The power of transnational political networks: Why some succeed, and others fail (marine biodiversity vs. anti-microbial resistance)

Marianne Riddervold, ARENA Center for European Studies, Norway & UC Berkeley
Reidar Staupe, Arctic University of Norway
Discussants: Daniel Serwer and Karolina Pomorska

2:45-3pm Special Issue Discussion and Wrap-Up with Contributors

Mai’a Cross & Marianne Riddervold

Participant Bios

Co-Organizers

Mai’a K. Davis Cross is the Dean’s Professor of Political Science, International Affairs, and Diplomacy and Director of the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures at Northeastern University. She is author or editor of eight books and special journal issues, including, International Cooperation Against All Odds: The Ultrasocial World (Oxford University Press, 2024), Space Diplomacy (Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 2023), European-Russian Power Relations in Turbulent Times (University of Michigan Press, 2021) and The Politics of Crisis in Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Her book, Security Integration in Europe: How Knowledge-based Networks are Transforming the European Union (University of Michigan Press), is the 2012 winner of the Best Book Prize from the University Association of Contemporary European Studies. Professor Cross has published on a wide range of topics related to European and transatlantic relations, especially foreign and security policy, the transatlantic relationship, diplomacy, public diplomacy, and space policy. She holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, and a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University. She is also a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Marianne Riddervold is research professor at the ARENA Center for European Studies, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and Senior Fellow at the UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies. She has published extensively on European integration, transatlantic relations and international relations in the Global Commons.

Co-host for Norwegian Nobel Institute Event

Kristian Berg Harpviken (b. 1961) is the Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Secretary to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. He is a former Director at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), with which he is still associated as a Research Professor. Harpviken has devoted his entire career to the study of peace and conflict, and his research interests include peace processes, peacebuilding, the dynamics of civil war, regional security, as well as migration and transnationalism. He has been a visiting researcher at Chicago University and Georgetown University. Harpviken is a frequently used media commentator, and lectures regularly to both academic and popular audiences. In addition to his scholarly articles and book chapters, Harpviken is also author of Social Networks and Migration in Afghanistan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), and (with Shahrbanou Tadjbakhsh), A Rock Between Hard Places: Afghanistan as an Arena for Regional Insecurity (Hurst/Oxford University Press, 2016).

Key Note Speakers

Alicia Sanders-Zakre is the Policy and Research Coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. She directs the campaign’s research and policy development, including on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons. Previously, she was a researcher at the Arms Control Association and at the Brookings Institution. She has published over one hundred articles, editorials and reports on nuclear weapons, which have been published in numerous publications including general and specialist media publications like Arms Control Today, the Baltimore Sun, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Guardian, the National Interest, and War on the Rocks, as well as in academic journals including The International Review of the Red Cross, Global Policy and The Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament. She has also provided expert analysis for several newspapers, radio and TV programs, including Al Jazeera, the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the BBC, NPR, Democracy Now!, Deutsche Welle (DW), France24, and Reuters and regularly speaks on expert panels at universities and other international conferences. Alicia holds a B.A. in International Security from Tufts University, a M.A.S in the International Law of Armed Conflict from the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, as well as a certificate of completion in International Nuclear Safeguards Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Iver B. Neumann is Director at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, Norway. He holds doctorates in Politics (Oxon.) and Social Anthropology (Oslo). Neumann has been Professor of Russian Studies at the University of Oslo (2005-2007) and the Montague Burton Professor in Internasjonal Relations at the London School of Economics (2012-2017). Amongst his 400 publications are 30 books in English inter alia on Russia, diplomacy, global governance, methods and social theory. He is the recipient inter alia of the Norwegian state’s Fridtjof Nansen Award for Outstanding Research (2020) and the James N. Rosenau Lifetime Award for Globalization Studies (2017). Neumann is now working on a genealogy of state systems (3500 BCE – 2027 AD).

Workshop Participants

Karolina Pomorska, University of Leiden, the Netherlands

Karolina Pomorska is a Jean Monnet Chair and Associate Professor in International Relations at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science.

Marianna Lovato, Taube Centre for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, Poland

Marianna Lovato is an assistant professor (adjunkt) at the Faculty of International and Political Studies of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. Dr Lovato earned her PhD in Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin. Her research interests focus on European foreign and security policy, informality in global governance, and international diplomacy. Her book, Making EU Foreign Policy Go Round, The Significance of Informality for the Survival of Multilateralism, is under contract with Bristol University Press. Dr Lovato’s work has also appeared in the Geopolitics, the European Journal of International Relations, Contemporary European Politics, the Journal of European Public Policy, the Journal of Common Market Studies, and the Journal of European Integration, among others. She is co-leader of the UACES research network RELATE.

Patricia Rinaldi, International Relations at Faculdades de Campinas, Brazil

Patrícia Nogueira Rinaldi, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Centro Universitário FACAMP (College of Campinas, FACAMP, Brazil) and Director of its Center of Studies and Research in International Relations (CERI-FACAMP). Her research and publications focus on the United Nations Development System, South-South cooperation, and an Earth-centered paradigm in policy transfer and diffusion for sustainable development. She is an expert of the UN Harmony with Nature Programme Knowledge Network, advocating for the legal recognition of Nature as a subject of rights and promoting an ecocentric approach at the United Nations. She is also involved in UN reform initiatives, contributing to the UN Charter Reform Coalition and the Global Governance Forum project “Second Charter – Modernizing the UN for a New Generation”. She holds a Ph.D. (2018) and a Master’s Degree (2010) in Political Science with an emphasis on International Relations at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP, Brazil). She was also a visiting scholar at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, City University of New York (2015).

Daniel Serwer, Johns Hopkins University, US

Professor Daniel Serwer (Ph.D., Princeton) is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is also affiliated as a Scholar with the Middle East Institute. His current interests focus on the civilian instruments needed to protect U.S. national security as well as transition and state-building in the Middle East, Ukraine, and the Balkans. His Righting the Balance: How You Can Help Protect America was published in November 2013 by Potomac Books. His From War to Peace: the Balkans, the Middle East and Ukraine was published in 2019 by Palgrave Macmillan. In 2024, he published Strengthening International Regimes: the Case of Radiation Protection, also with Palgrave Macmillan. Formerly vice president for centers of peacebuilding innovation at the United States Institute of Peace, he led teams there working on rule of law, religion, economics, media, technology, security sector governance and gender. He was also vice president for peace and stability operations at USIP, where he led its peacebuilding work in Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and the Balkans and served as Executive Director of the Hamilton/Baker Iraq Study Group. Serwer has worked on preventing interethnic and sectarian conflict in Iraq and Syria as well as facilitating dialogue between Serbs and Albanians in the Balkans. As a minister-counselor at the U.S. Department of State, Serwer directed the European office of intelligence and research and served as U.S. special envoy and coordinator for the Bosnian Federation, mediating between Croats and Muslims and negotiating the first agreement reached at the Dayton peace talks. From 1990 to 1993, he was deputy chief of mission and chargé d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in Rome, leading a major diplomatic mission through the end of the Cold War and the first Gulf War. Serwer holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Princeton University, an M.S. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Haverford College. He speaks Italian, French and Portuguese.

Lucas de Oliveira Paes, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway

Lucas De Oliveira Paes is a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) in the Global Order and Diplomacy research group. Lucas holds a PhD in Politics and International Studies from the University of Cambridge (UK), and master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). His research interests encompass relational perspectives on the dynamics of order, hierarchy, sovereignty, regionalism, and international relations theory more broadly. In particular, his research has explored hierarchical dynamics and asymmetries in the exercise of state sovereignty across multiple issue areas in international relations, with a focus on environmental governance.Between 2020 and 2024, Lucas conducted postdoctoral research on Amazonian regionalism as part of the Lorax Project on transboundary ecosystem governance funded by the European Research Council. From 2024 to 2028, he will lead a Research Council of Norway (RCN) Young Research Talents called “RESOLVING: Rebundling sovereignty over local nature in global governance”, which explores comparatively how the exercise of sovereignty over ecosystems such as the Amazon and the Gulf of Guinea has been transformed through multi-level environmental governance. Lucas’s work has been recently featured in journals such as Environmental Politics, Marine Policy, Cooperation and Conflict, Journal of Peace Research, Review of International Studies, and International Affairs.

Benjamin de Carvalho, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway

Benjamin de Carvalho is a research professor at NUPI, working in the Research group on Global Order and Diplomacy (GOaD). His research interests have, broadly speaking, been between three areas: (i) historical international relations, (ii) UN peacekeeping, and (iii) status in international relations.

Halvard Leira, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, Norway

Halvard Leira is Research Director and Research Professor at NUPI (the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. He has published extensively in English and Norwegian on international political thought, conceptual history, historiography, foreign policy, diplomacy, privateering and status more often than not with an emphasis on historical international relations. He is currently Associate Editor of European Journal of International Relations and The Hague Journal of Diplomacy.

Denise Garcia, Northeastern University

Denise Garcia is a full Professor at Northeastern University in Boston since 2006, appointed at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and a founding faculty member of its Experiential Robotics Institute. Garcia is recently appointed to the Global Commission on Responsible Artificial Intelligence in the Military. Before joining Northeastern, she worked for three years at the World Peace Foundation at the Belfer Center for Science at Harvard University. She is formerly a member of the International Panel for the Regulation of Autonomous Weapons (2017-2022), of the Research Board of the Toda Peace Institute (Tokyo, 2020-2023), and of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems (Autonomous Weapons Group). She is currently a member of the Institute for Economics and Peace (Sydney) and an advisor to the Global Challenges Foundation (Stockholm). She was the funded Nobel Peace Institute Fellow in Oslo in 2017. Garcia collaborates closely with projects in her home country, Brazil. A multiple teaching award-winner, her recent publications appeared in the American Academy for Arts and Sciences (Science and Diplomacy Journal), Nature, Foreign Affairs, International Relations, and other top journals. Her latest book is The AI Military Race: Common Good Governance in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (Oxford University Press, 2024), in which she examines the complexities entailed in creating a global framework to govern the military use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by proposing inclusive and humane ways to forge cooperation. Garcia has curated an annual month-long immersive program in Geneva since 2007. She brings her students to learn about diplomacy, world politics, and citizen science and technology in the capital of peace. She has a Ph.D. from the Graduate Institute of International Studies of the University of Geneva. She teaches International Law every semester at Northeastern’s Boston campus and is creating a course on AI and World Politics to start in 2025.

Reidar Staupe, Arctic University of Norway

Reidar Staupe is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Stavanger, Norway and an Adjunct Associate Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He is the author of Disasters and Life in Anticipation of Slow Calamity: Perspectives from the Colombian Andes and dozens of journal articles on a wide variety of slow-onset disasters. He has also edited numerous anthologies, including the forthcoming A Time of Disastrous Anticipations: Essays on life in the shadow of catastrophe.

Discussants

Paul Beaumont received a Ph.D. in International Relations/International Environmental Studies and Development from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 2020. He is a senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and leads the ERC Starting Grant funded project “Navigating the Era of Indicators” (2025-2030). His research interests include IR theory, the (dis)functioning of international institutions, dubious quantified performance indicators, global environmental politics, nuclear weapons, hierarchies in world politics, and pluralist research methods

Tine Brøgger has a PhD in Political Science from ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo. She also holds a Master of Science in Organisational and Social Psychology from London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and a Master of Arts with Honours in Politics from The University of Edinburgh. She has published on Nordic security and defence cooperation and EU integration in the field of security and defence. Her academic interests include European integration, EU institutions, The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, transatlantic relations and European security and defence cooperation.

Niels Nagelhus Schia is a Research Professor at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), where he leads the Security and Defense research group and directs the Research Centre for New Technology. Trained as a social anthropologist (PhD, University of Oslo; fellowship at NSSR), he specializes in the intersection of emerging technologies and international relations. He currently leads the project Earth to Orbit – Building Bridges in Space (DISCOVER), which examines the geopolitical dynamics of space governance, focusing on the drivers of cooperation and conflict and the role of international collaboration in ensuring global security and stability. He has also chaired the Norwegian government’s expert group on AI, democracy, and elections (2024–2025) and co-coordinated the reference group on Norway’s role in the UN Security Council (2021–2022).

Katharina Glaab is Associate Professor at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. Her research focuses on IR theories, norms and knowledge practices in global politics, and the politics of environmental and sociotechnical changes in the Anthropocene. She is leader of the ‘Nordic Space Infrastructures’ research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

Ingrid Hjertaker is assistant professor at Inland Norway University. Her research focuses on the global economy, finance and central banks.

Center for International Affairs and World Cultures Team, Northeastern University

Diana Atoui is the Administrative Coordinator for the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures (CIAWC). Her responsibilities include budget management, event planning, and managing website content. Diana is a Boston University alumna; she recently received her master’s degree in international affairs and her bachelor’s degree in international relations. Before joining Northeastern, she worked for several years at Boston University’s School of Theology as an Administrative Coordinator.

Matthew F. Fleming is a PhD student at Northeastern University and a Non-Resident James A. Kelly Korea Fellow at the Pacific Forum. His research focuses on Indo-Pacific strategies, minilateralism, and strategic competition in Northeast Asia, with an emphasis on U.S.-ROK-Japan, U.S.-Korea, and U.S.-Japan foreign relations. Fleming is also a Research Assistant at the Center for International Affairs and World Cultures and previously served as a U.S. Delegate to the U.S.-ROK-Japan Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit, a U.S. Department of State initiative organized through the U.S. Embassies in Seoul and Tokyo, and hosted in 2024 by the East-West Center. He has interned with the Indo-Pacific Strategy Team in the Office of Regional and Security Policy at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP/RSP), as well as with the East Asia Institute, the North Korean Review, and the Journal of Territorial and Maritime Studies. Fleming holds a Master’s in Global Affairs and Policy from Yonsei University in South Korea, specializing in international security and foreign policy, and a Master’s in Media and Governance from Keio University in Japan, focusing on global governance and regional strategy.

Transnational Political Networks – Oslo Workshop

Workshop Agenda