R-INSECURE: Responsible Internationalization, Inclusion, and National Security in Norwegian Research Organizations in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape

R-INSECURE addresses the evolving tensions between national security and internationalization and inclusion, in the Norwegian higher education and research sector.

R-INSECURE addresses the evolving tensions between national security and internationalization and inclusion and will generate original, path-breaking research on how they are playing out on the ground in the evolving geopolitical context and in the context of the Norwegian higher education and research sector’s dependence on international researchers - many from ‘red countries’ (in particular China) and from countries outside of security cooperation (in particular India). R-INSECURE will also, in collaboration with stakeholders, generate a future-oriented foresight analysis and scenarios to guide both critical reflection and policy on the matters of responsible internationalization and what ‘responsible’ in this context may come to mean. The R-INSECURE project brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers – from law, anthropology, sociology, international relations, area studies, psychology, to journalism in Norway and abroad.

R-INSECURE will generate ground-breaking insights into the challenging balancing act that research organizations in Norway need to perform to meet the expectations and requirements of responsible internationalization, considering both legislation pertaining to anti-discrimination and inclusion and the expanding national security policies and total defense strategies emerging from an increasingly insecure international geopolitical situation.

R-INSECURE will investigate these complex socio-legal, geopolitical, national security, foreign policy, organizational, and cultural drivers transforming internationalization and inclusion in the Norwegian higher education and research, pushing the state of the art while contributing – through extensive stakeholder engagement – to developing a research-based foresight and scenario analysis which can be utilized both for policy development and within organizations when implementing preventive security compliance measures and for risk management.

In a sector where internationalization provides Norway with necessary research personnel and introduces new challenges pertaining to inclusion and security, R-INSECURE holds significant potential for academic impact by advancing theoretical knowledge, fostering interdisciplinary and stakeholder dialogue, and facilitating learning, reflexivity, and research-based policy development. Through its rigorous methodology, collaborative approach, and foresight design, R-INSECURE will be a substantial contribution to the scholarly discourse on institutional complexity and organizational practice and policy implementation in a time of insecurity. 

RINSECURE will develop new empirically-driven theories of how research organizations are affected by new security regimes while at the same time recruiting, including, and retaining a viable international research staff in changing institutional, legal, organizational, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. This research will contribute to the development of theories about policy development and implementation in research and innovation, as well as science studies and sociological theories of science where globalization, anti-discrimination and security imply new conditions and patterns of action for scientific communities. By integrating a range of disciplinary perspectives, the project aims to advance theoretical frameworks that explain the complex interplays between internationalization, inclusion, and security and national security interests. This lens not only enriches our understanding of organizational policy processes and practices but also facilitates learning and knowledge exchange. Additionally, the project’s emphasis on collaboration between key actors at national, institutional, organizational, and individual level (researchers), and the establishment of an international expert group, serves to enhance the relevance and applicability of the findings, both within and outside of Norway.