Researcher
Jo Inge Bekkevold
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Summary
Jo Inge Bekkevold is a Senior China Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS)/Norwegian Defence University College, where he teaches geopolitics. He was the head of the IFS Asia Programme from 2011 to 2018. His research focuses on China’s foreign and security policy, China-Russia relations, China in the Arctic, Asian security issues, and the wider geopolitical ramifications of China’s rise.
His publications include India’s Great Power Politics: Managing China’s Rise, co-edited with S. Kalyanaraman (Routledge, 2021), Sino-Russian relations in the 21st Century, co-edited with Bobo Lo (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), and China in the Era of Xi Jinping: Domestic and Foreign Policy Challenges, co-edited with Robert S. Ross (Georgetown University Press, 2016). He is a frequent contributor to the Foreign Policy magazine, writing on topics related to China and geopolitics.
Bekkevold previously spent more than ten years as a career diplomat in the Norwegian Foreign Service, with several postings to China and East Asia. He has also been the China desk officer in the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, and he worked as a market adviser in Beijing in the 1990s. He learned mandarin Chinese at Peking University in the early 1990s.
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Clear all filtersThe Golden Age of Multilateralism Is Over
Foreign Policy Magazine: Jo Inge Bekkevold (IFS) focuses on the multilateral system that emerged after World War II unravelling before our eyes. He argues that there is a need for a serious debate about why the system is unravelling, whether it can be saved and what might potentially save it.
Europe’s New Role in U.S. Strategy
The future of U.S.-European relations is emerging as one of the most significant factors that will shape the global system. NATO’s celebration of its 75th anniversary at the bloc’s summit in Washington next week will be overshadowed not only by Russia’s war on Ukraine but by uncertainty over the future of the alliance itself—not least because of the possibility that NATO-bashing former U.S. President Donald Trump could return to power next year. The U.S.-European relationship will have several practical benefits for Washington’s rivalry with Beijing. In this op-ed, Jon Inge Bekkevold considers Europe's new role in U.S. strategy, the transatlantic relationship and U.S.-Chinese rivalry.
The Cost of Ignoring Geopolitics
Like Napoleon and the Ming dynasty, Europe is paying the price for strategic blindness. Europe finds itself in the greatest peril since the 1940s. As Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine enters its fourth year, the Trump administration’s policy shifts mean that Europe suddenly faces the possibility of war with Russia without the United States’ full backing. Washington is now negotiating a possible peace directly with Moscow and Kyiv, without the participation of other Europeans. It also seems willing to reach a deal largely on Russia’s terms. In this article, Jo Inge Bekkevold examines current geopolitical developments in Europe through a historical lens, highlighting both parallels and key differences with the past.