Prof. Ole Jacob Sending, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs

Prof. Ole Jacob Sending  has been invited by Research Area 4 of the Centre for Globalisation and Governance. Next to his public lecture, he is participating in a workshop with researchers from the RA4 and other institutions.

Prof. Ole Jacob Sending is Director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

Here is the abstract of his research and CGG public lecture

That  we  have  to  understand  representation  to  understand  the  broader  vocabulary  of  contemporary politics is in one sense self-evident.  It is nonetheless quite remarkable that, with a few exceptions, there is scarcely little theoretical discussion about the nature and role of representation in the establishment of agency and authority beyond the state. I argue here that we need to better understand how claims to representation are involved in the establishment of international authority and international agency. In developing this argument, I engage with Ann Orford’s path-breaking work on how claims to protection have established and expanded international authority over time. I argue

that claims to representation are prior to claims to protection, as the former determine the boundaries of what is to be protected and on what grounds. I explore this dynamic through an analysis of some key opera- tions of the League of Nations and the United Nations that have been set up in the name of ‘protection.’ I show that the meaning of protection varies considerably over time, depending on how different actors have claimed to represent and thus invest the ‘international community’ with different meanings.