Pål Røren

Greetings! I am a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at the University of Cambridge.

I did my BA in Political Science at Buskerud University College. My master’s degrees are from the Norwegian University of Life Science (International Relations) and University of Belgrade/Graz (South Eastern European Studies). I received my PhD in Political Science in 2020 from the University of Southern Denmark where I after graduating also worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Head of the MSc programme in International Security and Law.

My research for the last years has revolved around the pursuit and recognition of social status and prestige in world politics. My current research explores the consequences of war for actor’s social status in various formal and informal international institutions. My core research competences are on foreign policy, security, war, and diplomacy.

My previous research has been published in JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, International Relations, Third World Quarterly, Cooperation and Conflict and in the edited volume Status and the Rise of Brazil. 

From 2022, I am a recipient of the Carlsberg Foundation’s Internationalization Fellowship with the project Gatekeeping the Great Powers (GREATKEEP) which is carried out at the University of Cambridge. In the project, I question what kind of status-seeking activities generates recognition within the top tier status club of world politics: the great powers. To be recognized as a great power is the biggest accolade world politics has to offer. It follows therefore, that major powers are eager, and sometimes desperate, to seek entry to the great power club. In this project my aim is to map the membership composition of the great power club, what generates status within it, and how these dynamics have evolved over time. In the project I explore what kind of attributes, behavior, or actions that merits great power status. I do this by analyzing the established great powers’ discursive reasoning for barring, including, or excluding existing members or entrants from the club.