About the Journal

In June 2023, Benjamin de Carvalho and Kristin Haugevik were appointed by the NISA Executive Committee as new Editors in Chief of the prestigious journal, along with a team of Associate Editors consisting of Paul Beaumont, Øyvind Svendsen and Minda Holm. The team is based at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) in the Research Group on Global Order and Diplomacy. The team is supported by Tora Naterstad as Editorial Assistant.

Founded in 1965, Cooperation and Conflict has grown from a journal serving the Nordic IR community to a journal that publishes groundbreaking research issues of global interest and concern, yet remaining true to its Nordic base. Until 2023, and for twelve years, it was based at Lund University, with Annika Björkdahl as Editor in Chief, and Martin Hall and Ted Svensson as Editors.

“Cooperation and Conflict is a high-quality journal with a strong impact in scholarly debates, and we aim to develop it further” says Kristin Haugevik. Building on the legacy of past editors, the new team will uphold the quality of the journal as a platform for a pluralist research agenda combining critical approaches with more mainstream implications. As the founding editorial of the journal stated, the purpose of the journal was to be “ecumenical rather than sectarian in its attitude to different schools of objectives, methodology and theory, existing in the field of international politics.”

“Our aim is to consolidate Cooperation and Conflict as a platform for IR scholarship that is theoretically innovative, methodologically pluralist, empirically and historically rigorous, critical in outlook yet grounded in and with implications for key mainstream debates” says Benjamin de Carvalho. Nordic scholars continue to play a key role in the journal, as authors, reviewers and as members of the Editorial Board.

The new editors praise their predecessors in Lund for their efforts in strengthening the journal’s impact and standing in the discipline, broadening its scope to include IR research also beyond the traditional Nordic themes: “The previous team has done a remarkable job professionalizing the journal, including their targeted special issues and best reviewer prize”.

The NUPI team will build on these efforts but also introduce editorial changes that they hope will cement the standing of the journal as a leading journal in the field, including clearer differentiation between different types of research articles, as well as procedures aimed at increasing diversity.