Carl Henrik Knutsen

There's something deeply obscene and broken about the fact that Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are bombing elementary schools in an illegal war of aggression, and there's still a sense among the opposition that it has to be explained in terms of gas prices in order to get American voters to care.

🧵Feels like shouting into the void, but it is essential to note that the Trump/Rubio gutting of the State Department and blowtorching of US diplomatic capacity and credibility is an accelerant to this spiraling war and will seriously undercut US/allied efforts to pick up the pieces after. 1/

The State of Norwegian Democracy AbstractNorway is a high-quality democracy, almost regardless of how democracy is conceptualized or operationalized. Yet, Norwegian democracy is far from p

📢 New book chapter 🌟
👥 Sirianne Dahlum @sirianned.bsky.social & Carl Henrik Knutsen @chknutsen.bsky.social
🔎 The State of Norwegian Democracy
📖 Published in Oxford Handbook of Norwegian Politics
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/oxfo...

Flag of University of Gothenburg, hanging from the wall of the Department of Political Science building. Added text: We're Hiring! Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science. Combined position at V-Dem Institute and Governance and Local Development Institute.

📢 We are hiring: Combined Postdoc position at V-Dem Institute and GLD!
Applications are open for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science.

Application: web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103...

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#Polisky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScienceJobs #PostDoc

I know that one

I don’t think we fully grasp how powerfully our politics is shaped by constant threats of violence

# Iran, USA, og hva som skjer med demokratiene i verden? – med professor Carl Henrik Knutsen

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/08ck...

Både FNs sikkerhetsråd og den amerikanske kongressen ble forbigått da Trump gikk til krig mot Iran. Verden inne i en negativ bølge der stadig flere land glir i autoritær retning, sider @chknutsen.bsky.social Hva betyr det for vår evne til å løse globale problem? Spotify og Apple podkast, så klart!

Congratulations, Ingvild!!

The Green Gender Gap: Environmental attitudes and pro-environmental vote choice across Europe Does gender matter for how we engage with green political ideas? Using more than twenty years of data across 36 European countries, this paper identif…

Still controlling for gender without thinking about why? You can cite me💚👩‍🔬💚

I show that the gender gap in progressive climate and environmental views is a persistent empirical regularity that cannot be explained by differences in socioeconomic background, political ideology, or risk aversion.

📢 New article 🌟
👥 Davis D.E. Andersen, Carl Henrik Knutsen @chknutsen.bsky.social (ISV) & Svend-Erik Skaaning @skaaning.bsky.social
👉 Dimensions of State Capacity and Modes of Democratic Breakdown
📗 Published in Political Studies
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/0032...

📢 New article
👥 @adridelrio.bsky.social, Woseeok Kim, @chknutsen.bsky.social @anjaneundorf.bsky.social & 2 others
👉 Enhancing Transparency and Replicability in Data
Collection: Lessons from the Construction of Three Education Datasets
📖 Published in Perspectives on Politics
🔗 doi.org/10.1017/s153...

Today marks four years since Russia invaded Ukraine. These are some thoughts (recorded yesterday) on what Ukrainians have done for all of us and what we can learn from them.

Picture of new V-Dem Institute director Steven Wilson, with the quote "As new incoming director, my first priority is to keep doing what V-Dem has been doing successfully for nearly two decades: measure the different dimensions of democracy with the highest scientific rigor. I also bring with me my own research interest in digital politics and cybersecurity, in relation to democracy".

📣 We welcome Steven Wilson as Associate Professor at the Dept. of Political Science at the University of Gothenburg and new V-Dem Institute Director.
We asked Steven a few questions about his new role, his priorities for V-Dem, and his research interest: v-dem.net/news/new-v-d...
More below 👇
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Painful to read this and think about the 2021 coup attempt, which was as blatant as it gets. An utter failure of US elites to seize the moment when everybody saw the threat right in front of their eyes.

If we have history books in the future, they will be unkind.

NEW: The Kremlin continues cognitive warfare efforts to attempt to convince the West to abandon Ukraine by projecting the false narrative that Russian battlefield victory in Ukraine is inevitable and that Russian forces are making widespread battlefield gains.

Full report: isw.pub/UkrWar022026

‘Don’t go to the US – not with Trump in charge’: the UK tourist with a valid visa detained by ICE for six weeks Karen Newton was in America on the trip of a lifetime when she was shackled, transported and held for weeks on end. With tourism to the US under increasing strain, she says, ‘If it can happen to me, i...

A retired British primary school administrator with a British passport and a valid visa was shackled, chained and detained for six weeks by ICE

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

It's only a matter of time before they come for political science next

❇️ FirstView -💼 Profession

@jjungblut.bsky.social, @nilsweidmann.bsky.social & @chknutsen.bsky.social examine political science departments at universities across the world to assess the extent to which they vary with regime type.

👉 buff.ly/qEIeGoB

Oslo, Norway

It’s time to Hype that Hypothesis! @magnusrasmussen.bsky.social and @chknutsen.bsky.social develop three hypotheses to examine #state #development to explain how relatively weak political actors can shape national #policy by pursing local #reforms. Read their full article: doi.org/10.1353/wp.2...

Russia, Venezuela, Iran, China, the Sahel region, the United States ...

Want to know why state agents carry out brutal repression — or participate in illegal coups?

Our new book "Making a Career in Dictatorship" provides answers — it just got published by @academic.oup.com:

tinyurl.com/ystwm3tf

The image is a cover for "European Political Science" by ECPR. It features the text "EPS" and "#OpenAccess" on a greenish-brown background with a pattern of small squares.

#OpenAccess from @epsjournal.bsky.social -

The politics behind political science: A cross-national perspective - https://cup.org/3ObeH5g

- @jjungblut.bsky.social, Nils B. Weidmann & @chknutsen.bsky.social

#FirstView

In a new study (OA) in @epsjournal.bsky.social
@nilsweidmann.bsky.social
@chknutsen.bsky.social & I study the global distribution of polit. science depts.
Political science is today a truly global discipline & we find few differences along the democracy–autocracy continuum:
doi.org/10.1017/S168...

Rubio may have signed up to this extremist rubbish for the sake of his own pathetic career. That doesn't mean that Europe has to.

“I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future”

Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (295112) | University of Oslo Job title: Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Science (3-4 years) (295112), Employer: University of Oslo, Deadline: Monday, March 16, 2026

📣CfA for a Postdoctoral Fellow Position in political science (3-4 years) as part of the ERC project “Waging of War” (WOW) - PI Scott Gates. The application deadline is March 16th, 2026.
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Download and read Policy Brief No. 43 “Democracy Aid: What’s in it for Donor Countries?” at the V-Dem website: v-dem.net/media/public...

You can find all V-Dem Institute Policy Briefs and other publications on the V-Dem website: v-dem.net/publications/
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First page of V-Dem Institute Policy Brief Number 43, showing key insights and policy recommendations.

Altruistic motivations aside, looking at purely self-interested motives of donors, is there still a rationale for supporting democracy abroad?
YES, says a new #PolicyBrief from V-Dem Institute:
Democracy Aid: What’s in it for Donor Countries? v-dem.net/media/public...
👇 1(3) #Polisky #SocialScience

New publication!
Collecting data is key for social science. @adridelrio.bsky.social, Woseeok Kim, @chknutsen.bsky.social, @anjaneundorf.bsky.social, Agustina S. Paglayan & @eugenian.bsky.social suggest how to enhance transparency and replicability based on education datasets
tinyurl.com/yskszsdt

Trump is quickly passing Mobutu Sese Seko in corruption, although it took Mobutu more than two decades to reach $4 billion.