I’m a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), working on international ideologies, global liberalisms and their contestation, reactionary and ‘illiberal’ worldviews, and the history and transformation of global order. My work is both theoretical and empirical, and situated in interdisciplinary dialogue with global historical sociology, International Relations theory, social theory, critical international law and realist political philosophy.

Research

I work on global order and global governance; ideology and ideological contestation in world politics; the function of different hegemonic liberalisms in international politics, historically and at present; tensions between liberal-democratic values and security and warfare; (Western) liberal exceptionalism, self-images and their consequences for global governance; the global ideas and networks of “illiberal”, reactionary, far-right and postliberal forces; and the different meanings of sovereignty, values, morality and (mis)recognition in global politics. I am particularly interested in critical social and political theory related to the international sphere, global order, ideology and international idea(l)s of the state. My work has been published in journals such as Review of International Studies, International Studies Review, Cooperation and Conflict, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy and New Perspectives.

Since 2017, I have been part of international research projects and networks examining far-right, “illiberal”, postliberal and reactionary visions of global order – including a multi-year policy research project at NUPI for the Norwegian Ministry of Defence (2018–2023), which I led. My focus has been on the international ideology and visions of the far right and the “New Right” in the US, Russia and Europe, their relationship to different global liberalisms, and non-Western “reactionary” perspectives on global order. I am particularly interested in what arises from a shared critique of a particular form of liberal ideological Western hegemony across the West/non-West divide, and how to analytically separate this from shared commitments within global order.

Current work

My current work develops the theoretical framework of my doctoral thesis in several directions. I am preparing a book proposal based on the thesis (The Ideological International), as well as articles on the counter-ideological as a distinct political form and on liberal exceptionalism in international politics. I continue to work on the relationship between global liberalisms and their postliberal, ‘illiberal’ and far-right challengers, summarized in A Postliberal Global Order? Challenge(r)s to the Liberal West (2025). More recently, I have also been working on the ideological dimensions of US foreign policy under the second Trump administration and their implications for Europe, as well as the meaning of civilizational contestation across the West/non-West divide.

Doctoral thesis

My doctoral thesis, a monograph (2018–2022, defended after maternity leave in September 2023), is titled Towards a Social Theory of International Ideology, Ideological Scripts, and Counter-Ideology: Rethinking “Liberal International Order” and the Far Right’s Critique. It develops a social theory of how ideologies, as realized ideal worldviews, structure the international through the state as a legal and political subject. It also theorizes what I term the counter-ideological: a distinct and globally uniting form of resistance, separate from counter-hegemony, counter-conduct and counter-revolution. Empirically, it historicizes the divergent liberalisms that have dominated international society after 1945 and after 1989. It then examines the far right’s internationalism in the US, Russia and Europe, and where it intersects with Russian and Chinese “reactionary” critiques of Western liberal dominance.

Background

I hold BAs in Political Science and in European and American Studies (with Russian) from the University of Oslo and the American University in Cairo, an MSc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics, and a Master of International Studies (MIS) from the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, where I was a Fulbright scholar in a dual degree with the LSE. Until September 2023, I was a PhD fellow at the Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). I was Editor-in-Chief of the Scandinavian-language International Relations journal Internasjonal Politikk between 2018 and 2024. I am a board member of the Human Rights House Foundation (2018–) and the Norwegian Polytechnic Society’s Geopolitics Network (2025–). For many years, I have written a monthly column on global politics for Norwegian newspapers – Dagsavisen (2017–2020) and Klassekampen (2020–2025). I have lived, studied and worked in Wales, Egypt, the US, Russia, Kazakhstan, England, Tajikistan and Denmark, and am now permanently based in my hometown of Oslo, Norway, where I live with my partner and our two sons.

Please follow the links above to see academic publications, my column on international affairs [in Norwegian, some available through external translation in Danish and English], work in progress and more. I can be reached at mh@nupi.no.