Øystein Tunsjø

Summary

Øystein Tunsjø is Professor at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies (IFS), which is part of the Norwegian Defence University College. Tunsjø is head of the IFS Asia Programme and specializes in US-China relations, geopolitics and how global power shifts shape Europe and Norway’s defence and security. 

Tunsjø holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, a cand. philol. from the University of Oslo, an MSc from the London School of Economics and a MA from Griffith University, Australia. He has also been a visiting Fulbright scholar at Harvard and MIT. Tunsjø was a member of the government appointed Norwegian Defence Commsision of 2021, which submitted the NOU “Forsvar for fred og sikkerhet” to the Norwegian Government in 2023. 

Tunsjø is author of Kampen om verdensmakten: USA og Kina i det 21. århundre (Oslo: Dreyer, 2024); The Return of Bipolarity in World Politics: China, the United States and Geostructural Realism, (Columbia University Press, 2018); Security and Profits in China’s Energy Policy: Hedging Against Risk (Columbia University Press, 2013) and US Taiwan Policy: Constructing the Triangle (London: Routledge, 2008). Tunsjø is co-editor of US-China Foreign Relations: Power Transition and Its Implications for Europe and Asia (London: Routledge, 2020); Strategic Adjustment and the Rise of China, (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2017); Twenty First Century Seapower: Cooperation and Conflict at Sea (London: Routledge, 2012, translated to 21 Shiji Haiyang Daguo: Haishang Hezuo yu Zhongtu Guanli, by Shehui Kexue Wenxian Zhubanshe, Beijing, 2014); US-China-EU Relations: Managing a New World Order (London: Routledge, 2010, translated to Zhong Mei Ou Guanxi: Goujian Xin de Shijie Zhixu by the World Affairs Press, Beijing, 2012). He has also published several book chapters and journal articles, such as “The EU’s China Strategies: A Hedging Framework for Analysis” (forthcoming in Journal of Common Market Studies).