Background: Community health workers (CHW) can screen for cardiovascular disease risk as well as health professionals using a noninvasive screening tool. However, this demonstrated success does not guarantee effective scaling of the intervention to a population level.Objectives: This study sought to report lessons learned from supervisors' experiences monitoring CHW and perceptions of other stakeholders regarding features for successful scaling of interventions that incorporate task-sharing with CHW.Methods: We conducted a qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews to explore stakeholder perceptions. Data was collected through interviews of 36 supervisors and administrators at nongovernmental organizations contracted to deliver and manage primary care services using CHW, directors, and staff at the government health care clinics, and officials from the departments of health responsible for the implementation of health policy.Results: CHW are recognized for their value in offsetting severe human resource shortages and for their expert community knowledge. There is a lack of clear definitions for roles, expectations, and career paths for CHW. Formal evaluation and supervisory systems are highly desirable but nonexistent or poorly implemented, creating a critical deficit for effective implementation of programs using task-sharing. There is acknowledgment of environmental challenges (e.g., safety) and systemic challenges (e.g., respect from trained health professionals) that hamper the effectiveness of CHW. The government-community relationships presumed to form the basis of redesigned health care services have to be supported more explicitly and consistently on both sides in order to increase the acceptability of CHW and their effectiveness.Conclusions: The criteria critical for successful scaling of CHW-led screening are consistent with evidence for scaling-up communicable disease programs. Policy makers have to commit appropriate levels of resources and political will to ensure successful scaling of this intervention.HighlightsWe surveyed stakeholders about effective integration of community health workers into primary care teams.Critical issues were effective training, evaluation tools, and clear career paths.Strong political will and sufficient resource allocation were identified as critical for success.
BACKGROUND: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is recognized as a risk stage for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias, but its prevalence is not well known. We aimed to use uniform criteria to better estimate SCD prevalence across international cohorts. METHODS: We combined individual participant data for 16 cohorts from 15 countries (members of the COSMIC consortium) and used qualitative and quantitative (Item Response Theory/IRT) harmonization techniques to estimate SCD prevalence. RESULTS: The sample comprised 39,387 cognitively unimpaired individuals above age 60. The prevalence of SCD across studies was around one quarter with both qualitative harmonization/QH (23.8%, 95%CI = 23.3-24.4%) and IRT (25.6%, 95%CI = 25.1-26.1%); however, prevalence estimates varied largely between studies (QH 6.1%, 95%CI = 5.1-7.0%, to 52.7%, 95%CI = 47.4-58.0%; IRT: 7.8%, 95%CI = 6.8-8.9%, to 52.7%, 95%CI = 47.4-58.0%). Across studies, SCD prevalence was higher in men than women, in lower levels of education, in Asian and Black African people compared to White people, in lower- and middle-income countries compared to high-income countries, and in studies conducted in later decades. CONCLUSIONS: SCD is frequent in old age. Having a quarter of older individuals with SCD warrants further investigation of its significance, as a risk stage for AD and other dementias, and of ways to help individuals with SCD who seek medical advice. Moreover, a standardized instrument to measure SCD is needed to overcome the measurement variability currently dominant in the field. ; Susanne Röhr was supported by the LIFE—Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, University of Leipzig, funded by the European Social Fund and the Free State of Saxony (grant number LIFE-103 P1). This work was further supported by a grant from the Hans and Ilse Breuer Foundation. Funding for COSMIC comes from a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Program Grant (ID 1093083) (PSS, HB), the National Institute On Aging of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number RF1AG057531 (PSS, MG, RBL, KR, KWK, HB), and philanthropic contributions to The Dementia Momentum Fund (UNSW Project ID PS38235). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or other funders. Funding for each of the contributing studies is as follows: ActiveAging: no funding; CFAS: major awards from the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health, UK; EAS: Supported in part by National Institutes of Health grants NIA 2 P01 AG03949, the Leonard and Sylvia Marx Foundation, and the Czap Foundation; EPIDEMCA: French National Research Agency (ANR-09-MNPS-009-01); ESPRIT: Novartis; Invece.Ab: Financed with own funds and supported in part by "Federazione Alzheimer Italia", Milan, Italy (AG); KLOSCAD: the Korean Health Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Republic of Korea [Grant No. HI09C1379 (A092077)]; LEILA75+: the Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research at the University of Leipzig (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Klinische Forschung/IZKF; grant 01KS9504); LRGS-TUA: Ministry of Education Longterm Research Grant Scheme (LRGS/BU/2012/UKM–UKM/K/01); MAAS: The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW). Grant Number: 002.005.019; MoVIES: Grant # R01AG07562 from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Health and Human Services; PATH: National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia grants 973302, 179805, 157125 and 1002160; SGS: JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP17K09146; SLASII: The SLAS2 study was supported by research grants from the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR) Biomedical Research Council (BMRC) https://www.a-star.edu.sg/ [Grants 03/1/21/17/214 and 08/1/21/19/567] and the National Medical Research Council http://www.nmrc.gov.sg/ [Grant: NMRC/1108/2007]; ZARADEMP: Supported by grants from the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Madrid, Spain (grants 94/1562, 97/1321E, 98/0103, 01/0255, 03/0815, 06/0617, G03/128), and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) of the European Union and Gobierno de Aragón, Group #19.
Für weitere Informationen zur Variablenliste siehe die Dokumentation (Codebook) des CSES Module 1-3 Harmonized Trend File. Informationen zum Inhalt können den Studiennummern ZA5179 CSES Module 1 Full Release, ZA5180 CSES Module 2 Full Release, und ZA5181 CSES Module 3 Full Release entnommen werden.
The module was administered as a post-election interview. The resulting data are provided along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables in a single dataset.
CSES Variable List The list of variables is being provided on the CSES Website to help in understanding what content is available from CSES, and to compare the content available in each module.
Themes:
MICRO-LEVEL DATA:
Identification and study administration variables: weighting factors; election type; date of election 1st and 2nd round; study timing (post-election study, pre-election and post-election study, between rounds of majoritarian election); mode of interview; gender of interviewer; date questionnaire administered; primary electoral district of respondent; number of days the interview was conducted after the election; language of questionnaire.
Demography: year and month of birth; gender; education; marital status; union membership; union membership of others in household; business association membership, farmers´ association membership; professional association membership; current employment status; main occupation; socio economic status; employment type - public or private; industrial sector; current employment status, occupation, socio economic status, employment type - public or private, and industrial sector of spouse; household income; number of persons in household; number of children in household under the age of 18; number of children in household under the age of 6; attendance at religious services; religiosity; religious denomination; language usually spoken at home; region of residence; race; ethnicity; rural or urban residence; primary electoral district; country of birth; year arrived in current country.
Survey variables: perception of public expenditure on health, education, unemployment benefits, defense, old-age pensions, business and industry, police and law enforcement, welfare benefits; perception of improving individual standard of living, state of economy, government's action on income inequality; respondent cast a ballot at the current and the previous election; vote choice (presidential, lower house and upper house elections) at the current and the previous election; respondent cast candidate preference vote at the current and the previous election; difference who is in power and who people vote for; sympathy scale for selected parties and political leaders; assessment of parties on the left-right-scale and/or an alternative scale; self-assessment on a left-right-scale and an optional scale; satisfaction with democracy; party identification; intensity of party identification, institutional and personal contact in the electoral campaigning, in person, by mail, phone, text message, email or social networks, institutional contact by whom; political information questions; expected development of household income in the next twelve month; ownership of residence, business or property or farm or livestock, stocks or bonds, savings; likelihood to find another job within the next twelve month; spouse likelihood to find another job within the next twelve month.
DISTRICT-LEVEL DATA: number of seats contested in electoral district; number of candidates; number of party lists; percent vote of different parties; official voter turnout in electoral district.
MACRO-LEVEL DATA: election outcomes by parties in current (lower house/upper house) legislative election; percent of seats in lower house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of seats in upper house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of votes received by presidential candidate of parties in current elections; electoral turnout; party of the president and the prime minister before and after the election; number of portfolios held by each party in cabinet, prior to and after the most recent election; size of the cabinet after the most recent election; number of parties participating in election; ideological families of parties; left-right position of parties assigned by experts and alternative dimensions; most salient factors in the election; fairness of the election; formal complaints against national level results; election irregularities reported; scheduled and held date of election; irregularities of election date; extent of election violence and post-election violence; geographic concentration of violence; post-election protest; electoral alliances permitted during the election campaign; existing electoral alliances; requirements for joint party lists; possibility of apparentement and types of apparentement agreements; multi-party endorsements on ballot; votes cast; voting procedure; voting rounds; party lists close, open, or flexible; transferable votes; cumulated votes if more than one can be cast; compulsory voting; party threshold; unit for the threshold; freedom house rating; democracy-autocracy polity IV rating; age of the current regime; regime: type of executive; number of months since last lower house and last presidential election; electoral formula for presidential elections; electoral formula in all electoral tiers (majoritarian, proportional or mixed); for lower and upper houses was coded: number of electoral segments; linked electoral segments; dependent formulae in mixed systems; subtypes of mixed electoral systems; district magnitude (number of members elected from each district); number of secondary and tertiary electoral districts; fused vote; size of the lower house; GDP growth (annual percent); GDP per capita; inflation, GDP Deflator (annual percent); Human development index; total population; total unemployment; TI corruption perception index; international migrant stock and net migration rate; general government final consumption expenditure; public spending on education; health expenditure; military expenditure; central government debt; Gini index; internet users per 100 inhabitants; mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants; daily newspapers; constitutional federal structure; number of legislative chambers; electoral results data available; effective number of electoral and parliamentary parties.
Background: Little evidence on the validity of simple and widely applicable tools to predict mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exists. Objective: To conduct a large international study to validate the ADO index that uses age, dyspnoea and FEV1 to predict 3-year mortality and to update it in order to make prediction of mortality in COPD patients as generalisable as possible. Design: Individual subject data analysis of 10 European and American cohorts (n=13 914). Setting: Population-based, primary, secondary and tertiary care. Patients: COPD GOLD stages I–IV. Measurements: We validated the original ADO index. We then obtained an updated ADO index in half of our cohorts to improve its predictive accuracy, which in turn was validated comprehensively in the remaining cohorts using discrimination, calibration and decision curve analysis and a number of sensitivity analyses. Results: 1350 (9.7%) of all subjects with COPD (60% male, mean age 61 years, mean FEV1 66% predicted) had died at 3 years. The original ADO index showed high discrimination but poor calibration (p<0.001 for difference between predicted and observed risk). The updated ADO index (scores from 0 to 14) preserved excellent discrimination (area under curve 0.81, 95% CI 0.80 to 0.82) but showed much improved calibration with predicted 3-year risks from 0.7% (95% CI 0.6% to 0.9%, score of 0) to 64.5% (61.2% to 67.7%, score of 14). The ADO index showed higher net benefit in subjects at low-to-moderate risk of 3-year mortality than FEV1 alone. Interpretation: The updated 15-point ADO index accurately predicts 3-year mortality across the COPD severity spectrum and can be used to inform patients about their prognosis, clinical trial study design or benefit harm assessment of medical interventions. ; The Barmelweid cohort (Switzerland) was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant number 3233B0-115216) and by the Klinik Barmelweid. Basque study (Spain): No external funding. The Cardiovascular Health Study is supported by NHLBI Grant/Contract numbers N01-HC-85239, N01-HC-85079 through N01-HC-85086; N01-HC-35129, N01 HC-15103, N01 HC-55222, N01-HC-75150, N01-HC-45133; HL080295, HL-075366; NIA Grant/Contract numbers AG-023269, AG-15928, AG-20098, and AG-027058; University of Pittsburgh Claude. D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center grant number P30-AG-024827; with additional contribution from NINDS. See also http://www.chs-nhlbi.org/pi.htm The Copenhagen City Heart City study (Denmark) was supported by grants from The Danish Heart Foundation, The Danish Lung Association and Danish Medical Research Council. The Jackson Heart Study (JHS) is a collaborative study supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (study ID numbers: 5001; N01 HC95170; N01 HC95171; N01 HC95172) in partnership with Jackson State University, Tougaloo College, and University of Mississippi Medical Center. The Lung Health Study (USA) was supported by contract NIH/N01-HR-46002 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The National Emphysema Treatment Trial (USA) is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The PAC-COPD Study is funded by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS PI020541), Ministry of Health, Spain; Agència d'Avaluació de Tecnologia i Recerca Mèdiques (AATRM 035/20/02), Catalonia Government; Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR 2002/137); Catalan Foundation of Pneumology (FUCAP 2003 Beca Marià Ravà); Red RESPIRA (RTIC C03/11); Red RCESP (RTIC C03/09), Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI052486); Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (PI052302); Fundació La Marató de TV3 (num. 041110); DURSI (2005SGR00392); and an unrestricted educational grant from Novartis Farmacèutica, Spain. CIBERESP and CIBERES are funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministry of Health, Spain. PLATINO study was funded by ALAT (Associacion Latino Americana del Tórax); Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH (BI), and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The SEPOC study (Spain) was supported by grants from Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria 99/0690 and CIRIT 1999SGR00240. Judith Garcia-Aymerich has a researcher contract from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CP05/00118), Ministry of Health, Spain. Karel G.M. Moons receives funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (project 9120.8004 and 918.10.615).
The module was administered as a post-election interview. The resulting data are provided along with voting, demographic, district and macro variables in a single dataset.
CSES Variable Table The list of variables is being provided on the CSES Website to help in understanding what content is available from CSES, and to compare the content available in each module.
Themes:
MICRO-LEVEL DATA:
Identification and study administration variables: weighting factors; election type; date of election 1st and 2nd round; study timing (post-election study, pre-election and post-election study, between rounds of majoritarian election); mode of interview; gender of interviewer; date questionnaire administered; primary electoral district of respondent; number of days the interview was conducted after the election; language of questionnaire.
Demography: year and month of birth; gender; education; marital status; union membership; union membership of others in household; business association membership, farmers´ association membership; professional association membership; current employment status; main occupation; socio economic status; employment type - public or private; industrial sector; current employment status, occupation, socio economic status, employment type - public or private, and industrial sector of spouse; household income; number of persons in household; number of children in household under the age of 18; number of children in household under the age of 6; attendance at religious services; religiosity; religious denomination; language usually spoken at home; region of residence; race; ethnicity; rural or urban residence; primary electoral district; country of birth; year arrived in current country.
Survey variables: perception of public expenditure on health, education, unemployment benefits, defense, old-age pensions, business and industry, police and law enforcement, welfare benefits; perception of improving individual standard of living, state of economy, government's action on income inequality; respondent cast a ballot at the current and the previous election; vote choice (presidential, lower house and upper house elections) at the current and the previous election; respondent cast candidate preference vote at the current and the previous election; difference who is in power and who people vote for; sympathy scale for selected parties and political leaders; assessment of parties on the left-right-scale and/or an alternative scale; self-assessment on a left-right-scale and an optional scale; satisfaction with democracy; party identification; intensity of party identification, institutional and personal contact in the electoral campaigning, in person, by mail, phone, text message, email or social networks, institutional contact by whom; political information questions; expected development of household income in the next twelve month; ownership of residence, business or property or farm or livestock, stocks or bonds, savings; likelihood to find another job within the next twelve month; spouse likelihood to find another job within the next twelve month.
DISTRICT-LEVEL DATA: number of seats contested in electoral district; number of candidates; number of party lists; percent vote of different parties; official voter turnout in electoral district.
MACRO-LEVEL DATA: election outcomes by parties in current (lower house/upper house) legislative election; percent of seats in lower house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of seats in upper house received by parties in current lower house/upper house election; percent of votes received by presidential candidate of parties in current elections; electoral turnout; party of the president and the prime minister before and after the election; number of portfolios held by each party in cabinet, prior to and after the most recent election; size of the cabinet after the most recent election; number of parties participating in election; ideological families of parties; left-right position of parties assigned by experts and alternative dimensions; most salient factors in the election; fairness of the election; formal complaints against national level results; election irregularities reported; scheduled and held date of election; irregularities of election date; extent of election violence and post-election violence; geographic concentration of violence; post-election protest; electoral alliances permitted during the election campaign; existing electoral alliances; requirements for joint party lists; possibility of apparentement and types of apparentement agreements; multi-party endorsements on ballot; votes cast; voting procedure; voting rounds; party lists close, open, or flexible; transferable votes; cumulated votes if more than one can be cast; compulsory voting; party threshold; unit for the threshold; freedom house rating; democracy-autocracy polity IV rating; age of the current regime; regime: type of executive; number of months since last lower house and last presidential election; electoral formula for presidential elections; electoral formula in all electoral tiers (majoritarian, proportional or mixed); for lower and upper houses was coded: number of electoral segments; linked electoral segments; dependent formulae in mixed systems; subtypes of mixed electoral systems; district magnitude (number of members elected from each district); number of secondary and tertiary electoral districts; fused vote; size of the lower house; GDP growth (annual percent); GDP per capita; inflation, GDP Deflator (annual percent); Human development index; total population; total unemployment; TI corruption perception index; international migrant stock and net migration rate; general government final consumption expenditure; public spending on education; health expenditure; military expenditure; central government debt; Gini index; internet users per 100 inhabitants; mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants; fixed telephone lines per 100 inhabitants; daily newspapers; constitutional federal structure; number of legislative chambers; electoral results data available; effective number of electoral and parliamentary parties.
Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit Daten über das Abstimmungsverhalten, demographischen Daten, und Variablen auf Wahlkreis- und Länderebene in einem einzelnen Datensatz bereitgestellt.
CSES Variable List
Eine Liste aller Variablen wird auf der Webseite des CSES bereitgestellt. Sie verdeutlicht, welche Inhalte über das CSES verfügbar sind und erlaubt es die Inhalte über verschiedene Module des CSES zu vergleichen.
Themen:
INDIVIDUALDATEN:
Technische Variablen: Gewichtungsvariablen; Art der Wahl; Datum der Wahl 1. und 2. Wahlgang; Zeitpunkt der Studie (Nachwahlbefragung, Vorwahlbefragung und Nachwahlbefragung, Zwischen Wahlgängen in Mehrheitswahlsystemen); Erhebungsmodus; Geschlecht des Interviewers; Datum der Datenerhebung; Wahlkreis des Befragten; Anzahl der Tage zwischen Wahltag und Interview.
Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Bildung; Familienstand; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft anderer Haushaltsmitglieder; Mitgliedschaft in einem Unternehmerverband; Mitgliedschaft in Bauernverband; Mitgliedschaft in Berufsverband; Erwerbsstatus; Beruf; sozioökonomischer Status; Beschäftigungsform (öffentlicher oder privater Sektor, industrieller Sektor); Erwerbsstatus des Partners; Beruf des Partners; sozioökonomischer Status des Partners; Beschäftigungsform (öffentlicher oder privater Sektor, industrieller Sektor) des Partners; Haushaltseinkommen; Anzahl Personen im Haushalt; Anzahl Kinder im Haushalt; Anzahl Kinder unter 18 im Haushalt; Kirchgangshäufigkeit; Religiosität; Konfessionsmitgliedschaft; Haushaltssprache; Rasse; ethnische Zugehörigkeit; Wohnort; ländliches oder städtisches Wohnumfeld.
Befragungsvariablen: Wichtigste Themen der Wahl; Beurteilung der Kandidatenkompetenz im Umgang mit wichtigsten Themen der Wahl; Relevanz von Wahlen für Politikgestaltung; Bedeutung der eigenen Stimme für Politikgestaltung; Beurteilung der Leistung der Regierung; Partei und Spitzenpolitiker, die am besten für die Meinung des Befragten stehen; Sympathie-Skalometer für ausgewählte Parteien und Spitzenpolitiker; Einstufung von Parteien und Spitzenpolitikern auf einem Links-Rechts -Kontinuum; Selbsteinstufung auf Links-Rechts-Skala; wahrgenommene Unterschiede zwischen den zur Wahl stehenden Optionen; Beteiligung an der Wahlkampagne; Demokratiezufriedenheit; Parteiidentifikation; Intensität der Parteiidentifikation; Teilnahme bei der aktuellen und der letzten Wahl; Wahlentscheidung ( Präsidentschafts-, Unterhaus und Oberhauswahlen ) in der aktuellen und der letzten Wahl; Befragter hat Stimme für bevorzugten Kandidaten abgegeben; politische Informiertheit.
WAHLKREISDATEN:
Anzahl der zu vergebenden Sitze im Wahlkreis; Anzahl der Kandidaten im Wahlkreis; Anzahl der Parteilisten; Prozentanteil der Parteien (Wahlergebnis); Wahlbeteiligung im Wahlkreis.
LÄNDERDATEN:
Wahlergebnisse der Parteien bei der aktuellen Parlamentswahl (Unterhaus / Oberhaus); Anteil der von den Parteien erhaltenen Sitze im Unterhaus; Anteil der von den Parteien erhaltenen Sitze im Oberhaus; Anteil der Stimmen der Präsidentschaftskandidaten der Parteien bei der aktuellen Wahl; Wahlbeteiligung; Parteizugehörigkeit des Präsidenten und des Ministerpräsidenten vor und nach der Wahl; Anzahl der von jeder Partei gehaltenen Kabinettsposten vor und nach der letzten Wahl; Größe des Kabinetts nach der letzten Wahl; Anzahl der an der Wahl teilnehmenden Parteien; ideologische Parteifamilien; durch Experten zugeordnete Links-Rechts-Position der Parteien und alternative Dimensionen des Parteienwettbewerbs; bedeutendste Faktoren bei der Wahl; Fairness der Wahl; formelle Beschwerden gegen die Ergebnisse auf nationaler Ebene; Unregelmäßigkeiten bei den Wahlen; geplanter und tatsächlicher Wahltermin; Unregelmäßigkeiten des Wahltermins; Umfang von Gewalt während und nach der Wahl; geographische Konzentration von Gewalt; Protest nach der Wahl; Möglichkeit zu Wahlbündnisse im Wahlkampf; existierende Wahlbündnisse; Voraussetzungen für gemeinsame Parteilisten; Möglichkeit von Koalitionen ; Art der Vereinbarungen über Wahlbündnisse; Mehrparteien-Vermerke auf Stimmzetteln; Anzahl abgegebener Stimmen; Abstimmungsverfahren; Anzahl der Wahlgänge; Parteilisten geschlossen, offen oder flexibel; Stimmen übertragbar; Stimmen kumulierbar; Wahlpflicht; Sperrklausel; Einheit der Sperrklausel; Freedom House Rating; Polity-IV Klassifikation (Demokratie-Autokratie); Alter des gegenwärtigen Regimes; Eigenschaften des Regimes: Art der Exekutive, Anzahl der Monate seit den letzten Unterhauswahl und Präsidentschaftswahl; Wahlsystem bei Präsidentschaftswahlen, Wahlsystem für alle Wahlebenen (Mehrheitswahlrecht, Verhältniswahlrecht oder Mischformen); für Unter-und Oberhäuser wurde codiert: Anzahl der Wahlsegmente, verknüpfte Wahlsegmente, Unterformen von Mischwahlsystemen, Größenordnung des Bezirks (Anzahl der aus jedem Bezirk gewählten Mitglieder), Anzahl der sekundären und tertiären Wahlkreise, Stimmabgabe für Parteienbündnisse; Größe des Unterhauses; Wachstum des Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) in Prozent; BIP pro Kopf; Inflationsrate, BIP- Deflator; Human-Development-Index; Gesamtbevölkerung; Arbeitslosigkeit absolut; föderale Verfassungsstruktur; Anzahl der gesetzgebenden Kammern; Verfügbarkeit der Wahlergebnisse; effektive Anzahl der Wahl- und Parlamentsparteien.
Das Modul wurde als Nachwahl-Befragung durchgeführt. Die daraus resultierenden Daten werden mit Daten über das Abstimmungsverhalten, demographischen Daten, und Variablen auf Wahlkreis- und Länderebene in einem einzelnen Datensatz bereitgestellt. CSES Variable List Eine Liste aller Variablen wird auf der Webseite des CSES bereitgestellt. Sie verdeutlicht, welche Inhalte über das CSES verfügbar sind und erlaubt es die Inhalte über verschiedene Module des CSES zu vergleichen. Themen: INDIVIDUALDATEN: Technische Variablen: Gewichtungsvariablen; Art der Wahl; Datum der Wahl 1. und 2. Wahlgang; Zeitpunkt der Studie (Nachwahlbefragung, Vorwahlbefragung und Nachwahlbefragung, Zwischen Wahlgängen in Mehrheitswahlsystemen); Erhebungsmodus; Geschlecht des Interviewers; Datum der Datenerhebung; Wahlkreis des Befragten; Anzahl der Tage zwischen Wahltag und Interview. Demographie: Alter; Geschlecht; Bildung; Familienstand; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft anderer Haushaltsmitglieder; Mitgliedschaft in einem Unternehmerverband; Mitgliedschaft in Bauernverband; Mitgliedschaft in Berufsverband; Erwerbsstatus; Beruf; sozioökonomischer Status; Beschäftigungsform (öffentlicher oder privater Sektor, industrieller Sektor); Erwerbsstatus des Partners; Beruf des Partners; sozioökonomischer Status des Partners; Beschäftigungsform (öffentlicher oder privater Sektor, industrieller Sektor) des Partners; Haushaltseinkommen; Anzahl Personen im Haushalt; Anzahl Kinder im Haushalt; Anzahl Kinder unter 18 im Haushalt; Kirchgangshäufigkeit; Religiosität; Konfessionsmitgliedschaft; Haushaltssprache; Rasse; ethnische Zugehörigkeit; Wohnort; ländliches oder städtisches Wohnumfeld. Befragungsvariablen: Wichtigste Themen der Wahl; Beurteilung der Kandidatenkompetenz im Umgang mit wichtigsten Themen der Wahl; Relevanz von Wahlen für Politikgestaltung; Bedeutung der eigenen Stimme für Politikgestaltung; Beurteilung der Leistung der Regierung; Partei und Spitzenpolitiker, die am besten für die Meinung des Befragten stehen; Sympathie-Skalometer für ausgewählte Parteien und Spitzenpolitiker; Einstufung von Parteien und Spitzenpolitikern auf einem Links-Rechts -Kontinuum; Selbsteinstufung auf Links-Rechts-Skala; wahrgenommene Unterschiede zwischen den zur Wahl stehenden Optionen; Beteiligung an der Wahlkampagne; Demokratiezufriedenheit; Parteiidentifikation; Intensität der Parteiidentifikation; Teilnahme bei der aktuellen und der letzten Wahl; Wahlentscheidung ( Präsidentschafts-, Unterhaus und Oberhauswahlen ) in der aktuellen und der letzten Wahl; Befragter hat Stimme für bevorzugten Kandidaten abgegeben; politische Informiertheit. WAHLKREISDATEN: Anzahl der zu vergebenden Sitze im Wahlkreis; Anzahl der Kandidaten im Wahlkreis; Anzahl der Parteilisten; Prozentanteil der Parteien (Wahlergebnis); Wahlbeteiligung im Wahlkreis. LÄNDERDATEN: Wahlergebnisse der Parteien bei der aktuellen Parlamentswahl (Unterhaus / Oberhaus); Anteil der von den Parteien erhaltenen Sitze im Unterhaus; Anteil der von den Parteien erhaltenen Sitze im Oberhaus; Anteil der Stimmen der Präsidentschaftskandidaten der Parteien bei der aktuellen Wahl; Wahlbeteiligung; Parteizugehörigkeit des Präsidenten und des Ministerpräsidenten vor und nach der Wahl; Anzahl der von jeder Partei gehaltenen Kabinettsposten vor und nach der letzten Wahl; Größe des Kabinetts nach der letzten Wahl; Anzahl der an der Wahl teilnehmenden Parteien; ideologische Parteifamilien; durch Experten zugeordnete Links-Rechts-Position der Parteien und alternative Dimensionen des Parteienwettbewerbs; bedeutendste Faktoren bei der Wahl; Fairness der Wahl; formelle Beschwerden gegen die Ergebnisse auf nationaler Ebene; Unregelmäßigkeiten bei den Wahlen; geplanter und tatsächlicher Wahltermin; Unregelmäßigkeiten des Wahltermins; Umfang von Gewalt während und nach der Wahl; geographische Konzentration von Gewalt; Protest nach der Wahl; Möglichkeit zu Wahlbündnisse im Wahlkampf; existierende Wahlbündnisse; Voraussetzungen für gemeinsame Parteilisten; Möglichkeit von Koalitionen ; Art der Vereinbarungen über Wahlbündnisse; Mehrparteien-Vermerke auf Stimmzetteln; Anzahl abgegebener Stimmen; Abstimmungsverfahren; Anzahl der Wahlgänge; Parteilisten geschlossen, offen oder flexibel; Stimmen übertragbar; Stimmen kumulierbar; Wahlpflicht; Sperrklausel; Einheit der Sperrklausel; Freedom House Rating; Polity-IV Klassifikation (Demokratie-Autokratie); Alter des gegenwärtigen Regimes; Eigenschaften des Regimes: Art der Exekutive, Anzahl der Monate seit den letzten Unterhauswahl und Präsidentschaftswahl; Wahlsystem bei Präsidentschaftswahlen, Wahlsystem für alle Wahlebenen (Mehrheitswahlrecht, Verhältniswahlrecht oder Mischformen); für Unter-und Oberhäuser wurde codiert: Anzahl der Wahlsegmente, verknüpfte Wahlsegmente, Unterformen von Mischwahlsystemen, Größenordnung des Bezirks (Anzahl der aus jedem Bezirk gewählten Mitglieder), Anzahl der sekundären und tertiären Wahlkreise, Stimmabgabe für Parteienbündnisse; Größe des Unterhauses; Wachstum des Bruttoinlandsprodukt (BIP) in Prozent; BIP pro Kopf; Inflationsrate, BIP- Deflator; Human-Development-Index; Gesamtbevölkerung; Arbeitslosigkeit absolut; föderale Verfassungsstruktur; Anzahl der gesetzgebenden Kammern; Verfügbarkeit der Wahlergebnisse; effektive Anzahl der Wahl- und Parlamentsparteien.
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India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been in power for ten years, is seeking a third term in office. His goal is to restore the country to the preeminent position it supposedly lost due to previous Muslim and British rulers.He is kicking off the 2024 election year with the inauguration of the Ayodhya temple intended to liberate Hindus from the alleged enslavement they endured for 1,200 years.His supremacist ideology aims to transform the Hindu majority into an electoral majority. By intertwining politics and religion, it turns Muslims and Christians into aliens worthy only of the status of second-class citizens.Rarely has Hindu nationalist pride been so deeply flattered in India as at the start of 2024. With general elections looming in the South Asian giant – a huge ballot set to stretch over the months of April and May to allow hundreds of millions of voters to go to the polls – Narendra Modi is running for a third five-year term. He aims to make the religious question the common thread running through his campaign. On January 22nd, 2024, before an all-male audience of 8,000 devotees, the head of government of the world's most populous country (1.43 billion inhabitants) led the solemn consecration of the Hindu temple currently under construction in Ayodhya, a holy city located on the Ganges plain. Boycotted by the opposition, this surreal piece of stage management is one of the most significant political events in India's contemporary history since the country gained independence in 1947.This inauguration marks the fulfilment of the Hindu supremacist fantasy formulated almost a century ago by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the association of the nation's volunteers founded in September 1925 in the city of Nagpur, at the exact geographical centre of the Indian subcontinent. The apparatchik Modi, born in 1950, was indoctrinated in the organisation from the age of eight and made his career there, before winning election mandates from the 2000s onwards. As the central core of the Hindu nationalist constellation around which dozens of student, workers' and farmers' organisations, publishing houses and charities orbit, as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Indian People's Party – its political showcase –, the RSS considers the Ayodhya temple its ultimate Holy Grail. Narendra Modi made it happen. Ayodhya is becoming what Mecca is to Islam: the holiest place in Hinduism. The prime minister opened an international airport on December 31st, 2023, to draw millions of pilgrims from all over the world. In the eyes of the Indian people, the far-right leader is now either a timeless sage, detached from the material condition, or a fanatical guru.An authoritarian regime with theocratic overtonesNever had an Indian prime minister indulged in such a masquerade, but the West was unmoved. After receiving Narendra Modi in Paris with the greatest possible republican decorum for Bastille Day on July 14th, the French national holiday celebrating the homeland of human rights, Emmanuel Macron was the guest of honour of his Indian "friend" on January 26th, 2024, in Delhi. Initially, Joe Biden was to have been invited to the Republic Day military parade marking the anniversary of the Indian constitution. The US president reluctantly declined to attend in the wake of the recent attempted assassination of an American citizen of Indian origin in New York, an opponent of the Modi regime. Washington accuses the Indian secret service of being behind the attempt on his life.Yet India is well and truly in the process of exiting the democracy camp and sliding into an authoritarian regime with theocratic overtones, and not because prelates are taking the reins of the country – Hinduism has no clergy whatsoever – but because the policies pursued at the top of the state are driven solely by religious considerations, in defiance of the secularist thinking of India's founding fathers, Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in particular. The current government is at pains to consign them to the dustbin of history, as well as other figures who are less well known in Europe, such as Nehru's right-hand man Vallabhbhai Patel and Babasaheb Ambedkar, the principal drafter of the constitution enacted in 1950.Like Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Narendra Modi is striving to merge religion1, nation and leadership, flying in the face of India's secular constitution. Describing India as "the world's largest democracy" no longer makes much sense today. More or less free elections are still held at the national and state levels, there is still a multi-party system and political changeovers occur regularly. But the foundations of democracy and the rule of law that typically accompany that are being eaten away and undermined one after another. The judiciary has been brought to heel, all the way up to its highest level, the Supreme Court. India's election commission, which is supposed to guarantee the pluralism of universal suffrage, has been placed under executive control; as recently as December 2023, the reform of the procedure for appointing its members made them entirely dependent on the government. In ten years, 17,000 international NGOs have been expelled from the country; opponents and what remains of the independent press has been severely repressed, and history has been completely rewritten in school textbooks. Fear reigns everywhere.The latest figures released in 2023 show that the ruling party attracts more than two-thirds of private donations to politics, and in a very opaque way. It has an unrivalled strike force, both human and financial, which it deploys without limit, particularly on social media. The BJP has become a bulldozer against which opposition parties have virtually no resistance in the northern half of the subcontinent, with the notable exception of Punjab state in the west, and Bengal state in the east, the traditional stronghold of Indian communism. Only the southern half of India holds its own, with the BJP proving unable to make inroads in most of the Deccan states, from Kerala to Telangana, taking in Tamil Nadu.Three heavyweight institutions have taken note of India's worrying new situation, downgrading it on the scale of democracies. For the past three years, the Swedish V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg has classified India as an "electoral autocracy", a regime that looks like a democracy but which one by one scuttles all the checks and balances that could safegard the balance of power. The American NGO Freedom House counts it among "partially free" countries, while the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, an intergovernmental organisation based in Stockholm, places it among the "declining" democracies. In the World Press Freedom Index compiled and published by Reporters Without Borders, India has dropped to 161st place out of 180.Iniquitous laws, often inherited from British occupation, on the offence of sedition or religious conversion are used to silence any dissenting voice. Anyone who is not on Modi's side is automatically considered an enemy of the prime minister, an enemy of Hindus and an enemy of the nation. Renowned political analyst Pratap Bhanu Mehta said as much recently in an interview with The New York Times: Indian democracy is under "very worrying" assault and "a sense of fear" is spreading about "the direction it is taking".1Back on August 5th, 2020, for the laying of the foundation stone of the Ayodhya temple, Narendra Modi was transformed into a high priest, dressed from head to toe in a gold-coloured tunic and draped with a saffron stole, the orange fetish of Hindu nationalists. The date had not been chosen at random. Exactly one year earlier, his government had brutally placed Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in the Indian Union, under siege, blocking internet access, imprisoning local leaders, abolishing the regional executive and parliament and banning all foreign journalists. A year later, surrounded by priests and ascetics, the Hindu nationalist leader performed a Vedic liturgy, chanting endless mantras before unveiling the foundation stone of the future edifice.On many other occasions, Modi has shamelessly mixed politics and religion. On December 13th, 2021, the member of parliament for Varanasi (formerly Benares), the holy city with its famous funeral pyres where the most fervent believers dream of achieving moksha, the end of the cycles of reincarnation, inaugurated an architectural complex leading to the Ganges by immersing himself in the river, again dressed in saffron, his forehead crossed with the tripundra, three horizontal lines drawn in ashes that symbolise the god Shiva.More recently, on May 28th, 2023, India's strongman took religious symbolism a step further by unveiling the interior of the new parliament building in Delhi. Drawn to the theatre since early childhood, the septuagenarian leader indulged in a totally inappropriate show. He did not see fit to invite the president of the republic, Droupadi Murmu, even though, according to the constitution, parliament is the product of the people and the head of state, however symbolic the latter's role may be. Narendra Modi lay on his stomach in front of around 30 half-naked sadhus, contemplative recluses, before entering the new hemicycle with his face deep in contemplation, carrying a long golden sceptre against his chest, which he religiously placed next to the high chair of the speaker of the house. That day, for all to see, the temple of democracy was converted into a Hindu temple.The monarchical ceremony enabled Modi to appropriate the symbolism of a relic dating back to the Cholas, the Tamil dynasty whose Hindu empire (300 BC-1279) gloriously resisted the Muslim invasions that swept across the north of the subcontinent from the 7th century onwards. It was also used to stage a hoax. According to the prime minister's entourage, the sceptre in question was given to Nehru by the British on the day they left India. Vehemently contested by historians, this account was a means of legitimising an Indian right wing invested with an allegedly divine power. All the better to make people forget its past collaborationist activities with the British crown. In the three decades leading up to 1947, the Hindu Mahasabha (Hindu Grand Assembly), a forerunner of the BJP, had distinguished itself for its involvement in the workings of the occupying power's administration.An outrageous cult of personality A century later, it is a question of concealing this fact and acquiring new virtue, at a time when the 21st century is shaping up to be "India's century", as Modi is convinced. This is why he worked so hard to ensure that his country took over the rotating presidency of the G20 from Indonesia in 2023, when it should have held it in 2022. It was a ploy designed to make Modi look like one of the world's leading politicians in the run up to the Indian general elections. The pomp with which the leaders of the 20 countries in this club were received at the Delhi summit last September was only matched by the propaganda deployed by the Indian authorities to capitalise on it.Accustomed to an astonishing cult of personality, Modi's face is everywhere: in railway stations and airports, on bags of food rations distributed to the most destitute, on Covid vaccination certificates, in the press to the point of overkill. One figure speaks volumes: his government spends the equivalent of €230,000 a day on buying advertising space in the media. Since the end of December, life-size cardboard cutouts of Narendra Modi have been set up in all railway stations and schools so that Indians, from the youngest to the oldest, can take selfies with him. It is an election stunt, financed with taxpayers' money. For the G20 summit itself, it was impossible take two steps on the capital's streets, or in any of India's major cities, without coming across a giant portrait of the prime minister bearing the logo of the world summit and the slogan chosen for the occasion: "One Earth, One Family, One Future". In other words, the future of the planet will not be played out without India.For the Hindu nationalist leader, the primary goal is to restore the country to the first-rate position it lost because of the Muslims and the British colonists of the East India Company. First-rate, because India invented not only yoga and Ayurvedic medicine, but also, and millennia ago, aviation, cosmetic surgery, in vitro fertilisation and the internet – at least according to several BJP leaders, who spout such nonsense with the utmost seriousness at scientific conferences. If Modi wants to free Indians from the slavery of which he claims they have been victims for 1,200 years, it is because he believes the time has come to heal what the writer Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (in 1976) called the "wounded civilisation". According to the winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature, India's decline began in 1565, when the sultanates of the young Mughal Empire brought down Vijayanagar, capital of the last great Hindu empire, now an archaeological site known as Hampi, in Karnataka.This saga, seen as an unmitigated disaster by RSS militants, is analysed as the inescapable culmination of Hindu vanity by Salman Rushdie in his latest novel, Victory City (2023). A native of Bombay, the American-British writer spins a mythical tale of the rise, then decline and fall of Vijayanagar after it became a reactionary dictatorial regime, which the reader might take as an allusion to the current situation in India: "Many people are suffering from this new hard line but they are keeping quiet, because (the king) has created a squadron of henchmen who react harshly to the slightest sign of dissent. There is a hard core, a small group that rules, and most people of a certain age fear it and hate it. Unfortunately, a significant proportion of young people support it, saying that the new 'discipline' is necessary to safeguard their identity."The principles of secularism trampled underfootWhatever the historical interpretation, the erection of the monumental Hindu temple at Ayodhya is presented by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the World Hindu Council, an association linked to the RSS and responsible for the work, as a victim-based interpretation of this distant past. It is intended, it says, to "save the world from Christians and Muslims".2 The consecration of the temple could have passed for a political act like any other had Narendra Modi been inclined, since he came to power ten years ago, to cut the ribbon on a new mosque here, on a new church there. Given India's religious diversity, doesn't the secularism enshrined in the preamble to the Indian constitution establish a secular model in which the state authorises the presence of all faiths in the public arena and ensures each individual can express their beliefs, whatever they may be?Modi, however, has done nothing of the sort. Accused of having allowed anti-Muslim pogroms of an exceptional barbarity to take place in 2002 in his native region of Gujarat, a state bordering Pakistan he had taken charge of a few months earlier (the United States banned him from the country for years over the violence), he has only one idea in mind: to establish the superiority of Hindus over the rest of the population. And to assimilate the Indian nation to Hinduism, seen not as a religion but as a millennia-old culture, a philosophy, a way of life and even, for the most radical, a race. His political family sums up this vision in the term "Hindutva", a concept coined by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. According to the ideologue to whose ideas the founders of the RSS subscribed, to deserve Indian nationality it is imperative to be Hindu. And a Hindu can only be someone who considers the territory3 of India not only as their homeland, but above all as their holy land.This view effectively relegates to the rank of second-class citizens all those who belong to a religion described as "foreign": Islam and Christianity, of course, as well as Zoroastrianism imported by the Persians, and Judaism, whose representatives are now very few in number in India. In contrast, the BJP regime, which has been in power since May 2014, is much more tolerant of religions closely or distantly linked to Hinduism, because of their indigenous character, like Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. In this respect, the policy pursued by the autocrat Modi is populist, since in the name of a supposed homogeneity of the people, in this case the overwhelming Hindu majority, it fosters popular resentment against real and above all supposed foreigners, in order to promote a policy of exclusion by authoritarian means. Arbitrary arrests of Muslims and Christians, as well as the destruction of their homes and businesses, have become commonplace, generally under the eyes of an impassive police force.This policy, incidentally, confirms the disturbing affinities observed for nearly a century between the Hindu nationalism promoted by the RSS and Zionism, affinities that have been strengthened by the emergence of Islamist movements on a global scale. As the French researcher Christophe Jaffrelot has analysed in a number of recent publications, "majoritarianism", whether Hindu or Jewish, feeds on "ethno-nationalist ideologies that give priority to factors such as race, territory and nativism" and sees the individuals who make up the Muslim minority as "sub-citizens"3.It is no coincidence that Israel, a strategic partner for more than 30 years and a leading arms supplier, has grown considerably closer to India since Narendra Modi took office as prime minister and Benyamin Netanyahu has been in power in Israel. After the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7th, 2023, the Indian leader drew parallels with the Mumbai attacks and hostage-taking perpetrated by Pakistani Islamists in November 2008. With just a few months to go before the Indian general elections, he has found a fresh opportunity to wave his Islamophobic red rag to rally Hindu voters around him.Emigration on the riseMaintaining the confusion between Islam and terrorism is a tried and tested practice for him. When he was elected Gujarat chief minister in 2002, he referred extensively to the September 11th, 2001, attacks in the United States, as well as the terrorist attack on the Indian parliament in December of the same year. In 2019, when he was up for re-election as prime minister at the end of his first term, he made security the central theme of his campaign in the wake of a terrorist attack on an Indian army convoy in Kashmir, ordering surgical airstrikes on Pakistan in retaliation. This operation won him re-election by a landslide, with a record absolute majority for the BJP: 303 seats out of a total of 543.If Modi can bring the religious question to the fore in 2024, it is because he holds all the power in his hands. In 2014, he masked his intentions to reach the top. With the Hindu nationalists behind him, he preferred to seduce the rest of the electorate, on the sound advice of his communication experts, by promising them "development", in the image of the Gujarat model that he prided himself on having put in place in his home region, after ensuring that he had the employers and a number of prominent billionaires in his pocket.The promise of better days ("achhe din"), of economic growth and its expected benefits, has nevertheless fizzled out. Over the last ten years, India's gross domestic product (GDP) has grown by more than 60%. But in the previous decade, when the Indian National Congress was in power, it grew by nearly 100%. Narendra Modi says he is in charge of "the fifth-largest economy in the world", except that on a per capita basis, the wealth produced is no better than that of Bangladesh or Zimbabwe. Since he took office, public debt has soared to exceed the value of GDP, unemployment has reached record levels (to the extent that the publication of official statistics has been banned), causing more and more young people to flee abroad in search of a good education.Hundreds of thousands of people desperate to find work are also leaving the country, as highlighted by the plane intercepted on French soil before Christmas 2023. The aircraft belonging to the Romanian charter company Legend Airlines, was taking educated Indians, many of them from Gujarat, to Nicaragua, from where they hoped to go to Mexico and then into the United States. In 2023, no fewer than 100,000 Indians attempted to enter the country illegally, compared with 64,000 in 2021 and 20,000 in 2019. Currently, 2 million Indians leave their country every year. And since Narendra Modi came to power, 1.4 million Indian citizens have renounced their nationality.The tragedy of migration comes on top of an unprecedented widening of the gap between rich and poor, with 1% of the Indian population owning three-quarters of the national wealth, while the poorest half owns just 3% of that same wealth. India ranks 132nd in the UN Human Development Index, and according to the World Bank, 30% of its inhabitants live on less than $1.90 a day. When the government renewed the basic food aid programme last year, aimed at families who were not getting enough to eat, it was forced to recognise that there were 800 million beneficiaries. More than one in every two Indians.An openly Islamophobic discourseOne thing is certain: the completion of the Ayodhya temple brings to a close a sequence of three decades of debates, crises and bloody riots between the Hindu majority on the one hand, who make up 80% of the population and who Narendra Modi's BJP needs to turn into a majority at the ballot box, and the Muslim minority on the other, which accounts for "only" 14% but represents 200 million people, the third-largest Muslim population in the world after Indonesia and Pakistan. To appreciate the political stakes involved in this Ayodhya affair, one needs to know that the supreme holy city is the birthplace of Rama, the mythical ruler of antiquity who became a deity in the Middle Ages. Rama, whose epic Ramayana recounts the quest for his wife Sita kidnapped by the devil, is as important to Hindus as the trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. In the highest echelons of the BJP, it is not uncommon to hear it said that Modi is "the new Rama". As if the prime minister were a living god relegating all the great national figures of the past to insignificance, first and foremost Nehru, whom Modi has vowed to beat in terms of longevity in power (almost 17 years).The commemoration of the return of the royal couple Rama and Sita to the city of Ayodhya, illuminated by millions of candles, gives rise every year to Diwali, the festival of lights considered in northern India to be the Hindu New Year. Diwali is another way of forgetting the era when India was ruled by Muslims, which it was in whole or in part until the 19th century. Ayodhya, an ancient town on the great plain of the Ganges, was chosen by the founder of the Mughal Empire, Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad, Babur, to build a mosque at the beginning of his reign. In the 18th century, the building began to cause controversy, with some Hindus claiming that before Babur's mosque a temple dedicated to Rama had stood on that very spot, an assertion that has never been confirmed by any archaeological excavation, or even by his birthplace.In the early 1990s, the leaders of the BJP organised a procession covering several thousand kilometres in the north of the country, from the west coast of Gujarat to Ayodhya, with the aim of rallying crowds around the idea of demolishing the mosque and building a grandiose Hindu temple in its place. The nationalist parade drew in 75,000 volunteers and sparked outbreaks of violence in many places, under the leadership of the party president at the time, Lal Krishna Advani. This unprecedented operation culminated on December 6th, 1992, in dozens of rampaging fanatics climbing the domes of the mosque to demolish it with pickaxes and hammers, triggering a period of riots that left 2,000 people dead, the vast majority of them Muslim, and thousands injured in various parts of India. Behind the scenes, a local BJP boss in his forties with a chubby face and black beard meticulously organised every detail of the procession. His name? Narendra Modi.ReferencesNaipaul, Vidiadhar Surajprasad. India: A Wounded Civilization, V.S. Naipaul, Paperback, 1976. Rushdie, Salman. Victory City, Random House, 2023. Notes:1- "India is transforming. But into what?", Pratap Bhanu Mehta, The New York Times, December 12th, 20232- According to Triloki Nath Pandey, a VHP leader, in an interview with the author in 2019.3- "From Savarkar to Golwalkar, why Hindutva admires Zionism", Christophe Jaffrelot, Kalrav Joshi, The Indian Express, December 7th, 2023*Guillaume Delacroix is co-author with Sophie Landrin of the essay "Dans la tête de Narendra Modi" (Actes Sud, in press)All the publications express the opinions of their individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of CIDOB as an institution.DOI: https://doi.org/10.24241/NotesInt.2024/300/en
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Documents CIDOB: 15Winner of the Global Talent Award, launched by CIDOB and Banco Sabadell Foundation in the framework of Programa Talent Global.
ABSTRACTThis study offers a comprehensive overview of the Norwegian involvement in the Venezuelan peace process as a facilitator of the peace talks between the Venezuelan government and the opposition. It explains what Norway does as a facilitator (the process), as well as how (approach) and why (characteristics of Norway as a suitable mediator, and possible interests), not only in terms of the characteristics making Norway a suitable facilitator, but also its interests and motivations. The main goal is to draw attention to the importance and the usefulness of soft power tools for the achievement of foreign policy objectives and, in particular, peace-making. The study concludes that, for Norway, mediation as foreign policy is, in general but also in the case of Venezuela, the result of a combination of idealist, value-oriented motivations (humanitarian reasons and international stability), and realist, non-altruistic interests (status and access) arising from its constructed national identity and role conception. 1. INTRODUCTIONSince the early 2010s, Venezuela has been embroiled in a grave economic, political, and humanitarian crisis resulting in institutional disarray that reached critical point in 2017. It was in this year that the constitutional order was broken after Decision 156 of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice in Venezuela, whereby this organ attributed to itself the functions of the National Assembly, the country's legislative organ. Deemed unconstitutional by the political parties with a majority in the National Assembly, this move led to mass protests. The government reacted by calling for a new constitution to be drafted by a newly created Constituent National Assembly which, in August 2017, granted itself powers to pass legislation, thus overriding the National Assembly (Bronstein & Cobb, 2017). This was not recognised by the National Assembly but, in 2018, the Constituent National Assembly went ahead and blocked the participation of the main opposition parties in the presidential elections that year. These elections were rejected by a broad sector of the international community, among them the European Union (EU) and the Lima Group.1From 2017, Norway, with a population of just 5.5 million, has been exploring possibilities in Venezuela for political dialogue between the government of Nicolás Maduro and the opposition, first through the Norwegian Centre for Conflict Resolution (NOREF), an independent foundation that receives funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), and later, after 2019, with direct state involvement. Norway has built an image as a peace broker with its success in processes like the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and in the talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). But why did Norway decide to facilitate the peace talks in Venezuela? How does Norway approach peacebuilding in this conflict? This article aims to analyse the causes, process, approaches, and motivations for Norwegian mediation in Venezuela, in order to draw attention to the importance and the usefulness of soft power tools for the achievement of foreign policy objectives and, in particular, peace-making. I therefore explore the comprehensive role of Norway in the Venezuelan peace talks, the background, the process, and Norway's possible interests as a facilitator. I argue that,for Norway, mediation as foreign policy is, in general, but also in the case of Venezuela, the result of a combination of idealist, value-oriented motivations (humanitarian reasons and international stability), and realist, non-altruistic interests (status and access) arising from its constructed national identity and the way it perceives its role as a peace-making nation. As mentioned above, the Norwegian state became officially involved in the Venezuelan conflict in 2019. The domestic situation had come to a head on 23rd January when Juan Guaidó, leader of the opposition and president of the National Assembly, rejected the authority of Nicolás Maduro and declared himself acting president of Venezuela. However, the strategy failed when the military remained loyal to Maduro. Negotiation then became a last resort (NUPI 2020) and Norway began to facilitate negotiations between government and opposition, first in Oslo and then in Barbados, in 2019. These efforts led to further discussion between the parties through 2021 and 2022, in Mexico. In 2022, the war in Ukraine prompted changes in the positions regarding Venezuela of certain actors, notable among them the United States (U.S.) and the EU. As the Spanish Institute of Strategic Studies (Remacha, 2023) points out, U.S. concerns about energy security made it necessary to find a way of guaranteeing the international supply, and Venezuela was (and is) considered to be a strategic source. Contacts between the U.S. and Venezuela were made in 2022, and talks began about removing the sanctions imposed on the country. Given its economic situation, and the presidential elections due in 2024, Venezuela welcomed the rapprochement. If the sanctions were to be removed (at least partially), it was necessary to resume dialogue with the opposition, so in November 2022, negotiations recommenced in Mexico with Norway's mediation. Significant progress was made, and the release of previously frozen international funds was agreed upon (up to 3,000 million dollars earmarked mainly for public health, education, and food), as well as the lifting of some sanctions. Maduro's government is also aware that the 2024 elections should be held according to a model that respects democratic safeguards, with unrestricted participation by the opposition, so that results will be internationally recognised. Venezuela would then be able to resume relations with countries and regions like the U.S. and the EU, thus enabling international investment, particularly in the oil industry, and an improved economic situation (NUPI, 2020). Although the presidential crisis formally lasted until 5th January 2023 when Guaidó's acting presidency was abolished by the National Assembly, the political crisis with the opposition continues to the present day, in November 2023. 1.2. Research goals and objectivesThis study aims to explore the role of Norway as a facilitator in the Venezuelan peace talks, focusing on what it does (the process), how (approach), and why (characteristics of Norway as a suitable mediator, and possible interests). It seeks to demonstrate that, given Norway's national conception as a peacemaker, its strategy in Venezuela expresses a broad foreign policy endeavour that has humanitarian but also reputational and political motivations. More broadly, the importance of soft power tools for state actors to achieve their foreign policy objectives is discussed. Constructivism and Holsti's theory of National Role Conceptions (NRC) help to explain Norway's self-image as a peacemaker, while idealism and realism, together with Touval's "mediation as foreign policy" theory shed light on Norway's use of mediation as a foreign policy tool. Qualitative methods based on analysis of primary and secondary sources, complemented with semi-structured interviews with experts and officials of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been used. 1.3. Relevance and justificationNorway is a small country in terms of population but one with a notable ability to influence international affairs thanks to soft power. One of ways it exercises its influence is its internationally recognised image as a peacemaker, evidenced through its involvement in several peace processes. Indeed, since 1993, Norway has been engaged in 11 different peace processes (Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019) with some major successes but also others that were limited. The case of Norwegian facilitation of the Venezuelan peace talks is studied for two main reasons. First, is its relevance in terms of policy significance, as it is an ongoing process, which leads to questions about why Norway acts as a facilitator, and the possible interests it has in doing so, apart from the goal of peace itself. Second, is the practical reason of the author's knowledge of the three languages relevant for this research (English, Spanish, and Norwegian), which is a valuable asset in terms of good understanding of the information from primary and secondary sources written in the three languages. This is an advantage in the research, as it allows cross-checking of information, and offers a broader perspective on the topic. 2. NORWAY AS A PEACEBUILDING NATIONScholars offer several explanations of Norway's involvement in peace processes arising from international conflicts. The result of a pragmatic foreign policy, it combines idealist and realist elements in a seemingly contradictory policy which, in fact, accommodates different domestic interests and maintains inter-party foreign policy consensus (Riste, 2001; Ekengren, 2022).From a constructivist perspective, the notion of Norway as a nation for peace partly comes from its conception of its role as a small, rich, peaceful state, with a clear focus on human rights and humanitarian assistance (Leira et al., 2007). While it is true that the so-called value-oriented (idealist) diplomacy wasstrengthened, above all in the 1990s, with the increased involvement of Norway in several peace processes, its self-image as a peacebuilding nation has always been present (Leira, 2015). The Norwegian peace activist and later Foreign Affairs Minister, Halvdan Koht (1873-1965), argued in 1902 that, although the fact of its being a small state could limit its flexibility in foreign policy actions, Norway could and should secure its status by promoting peace and development. More than 80 years later, in 1989, Jan Egeland, who would become State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1990 to 1997, argued that a small, rich country like Norway could be more effective in promoting human rights and peace than old colonial powers or superpowers with their historical baggage and policies based on self-interest and dominance (Sørbø, 2018).Moreover, the notion of status, which is closely linked with the concept of identity, has been prominent in Norway since the nation's beginnings. Leira (2015) describes the pursuit of status as a peace-making nation in the 19th and early 20th century as a way of achieving independence (through moral authority), a means of saving money (as the policy for peace was cheaper than power politics), and as sound realpolitik for a small state. He also refers to the words of Ole Jacob Broch in 1864 when he argued that, when small states need to "engage in the strife of other states", they should do it decisively because, "for them, honour and prestige are even more important than for the greater powers" (Broch cited in Leira 2015, p.22).The role performance of Norway, or itsbehaviour with, and approach to foreign policy actions is, according to Gulbrandsen (2022), influenced by the logic of appropriateness (March & Olsen, 1998), dictated by the image the state has of itself, and constituting a basis for adopting a role in any specific context. In Holsti's view (1970), the main explanation for the role performance of a state arises from policy makers' conceptions of the role of the nation in a system (National Role Conception), but adoption of a role is also influenced by what he calls role prescriptions, which come from the external environment. In this case, if the Norwegian government and the Norwegian people have an image of Norway as a nation for peace, and if the external image they project in other countries is also that of a nation for peace, the logic of appropriateness and the role prescription will dictate that Norway will have to behave as a nation for peace, and thus engage in peacebuilding policy.For Skånland (2010) the Norwegian involvement in peace processes is the result of a discursive construction, amplified by the media, above all after 1993. Media coverage of the Norwegian involvement in the Middle East peace process gave a very positive picture of Norway in general, an image that was strengthened thanks to the perceived successes in the peace processes of Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and Mali. All this crystallised into three main discursive constructions: (1) the decisive significance of the Norwegian contribution for the outcome of peace processes, (2) the importance of peace promotion as a foreign policy tool, and (3) Norway's distinctive approach for peace promotion.Other authors emphasise Norway's peace engagement efforts from a more realist perspective and, in particular, as a policy instrument in its own right (Touval, 2003). Some, like Matlary (2002) argue that mediation is used as an institutionalised strategy for dealing with some of the challenges of being a small state, as well as for promoting Norway's interests in the international arena, and having some influence in international relations. As Stokke (2014) notes, although it has a small population, Norway has a disproportionate importance in other areas (fishing, oil and gas, shipping etc.), thus implying interests beyond its borders as well as influence in other domains because of this prominence. According to Matlary (2002), some Norwegian interestsidentified from a realpolitik standpoint are security (addressed through NATO), economic interests vis-à-vis the EU, access to political decision-making power in the EU and, outside the West, considerable economic interests in oil prices and oil export. Matlary, who collected data through a series of anonymous interviews with diplomats and politicians, alludes to the effects of value-oriented diplomacy in matters of matters and concludes that, apart from a good image and profile, what value-oriented diplomacy provides is access to other arenas where one needs the best possible entry. Her interviewees referred, above all, to access to the leaders of the U.S. Department of State through the policy of peace engagement, especially in the Middle East and, to a much lesser extent, to leaders of EU states. However, she says, it was difficult to collect specific insights into the effects of such access, a perspective shared by Stokke (2010, p.166) who argues that "the extent and manner in which recognition is translated into international influence is complex and may vary from one policy field to another and between different arenas of international relations. This means that it is notoriously difficult to detect and measure the direct benefits from peace engagement". Finally, another interesting perspective is that provided by Neumann (2011). For him, the peace and reconciliation efforts of medium and small countries are a means to maintain a system with which they are reasonably satisfied, because they are not as well equipped as bigger powers to deal with other (more violent) types of conflict resolution methods, and he refers specifically to the institutionalisation of peace and reconciliation efforts by Norway.To conclude, Norway's peacebuilding policy may be understood as apparently idealist (value-oriented diplomacy) and based on a self-image as a nation for peace, which includes both idealist (moral responsibility) and realist (influence in the international arena and security) motivations. Until now, there have been no major conflicts between those two angles (Stokke, 2014), but in an increasingly polarised world, it is becoming more and more difficult for Norway to maintain a balanced policy in peacebuilding processes. 3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKThis study draws on the theory of constructivism to explain Norway's national role conception and considers the notions of idealism and realism to explain mediation as its foreign policy. A theoretical framework based on such apparently antagonistic ideas is, perhaps, not very common but, as Barkin (2003) puts it, a constructivist epistemology and a classical realist theory are, in fact, compatible and, moreover, this kind of framework can be useful in International Relations (IR) theory, as it can specify the relationship between the study of power in IR and the study of IR as social constructions. Indeed, constructivism and perceptions can—and are—often applied to fulfil or justify realist objectives and policies.For the purposes of this study, I consider that mediation as foreign policy is a result of idealist (value-oriented) and realist (power) motivations arising from a constructed national identity and role conception.3.1. Constructivism and national role conceptionFor Barnett (2018), constructivism as an international relations social theory is "concerned about how to conceptualise the relationship between agents and structures, but it is not a substantive theory" (p.88). The basic premise is that the world is socially constructed, which means that "social reality is a product of human consciousness. Consciousness is created and constituted through knowledge that shapes meaning and categories of understanding and action; such knowledge and meanings can be institutionalised in social life; and this institutionalisation, in turn, shapes the construction of social reality" (p.88). These categories shape not only external reality but also its actors, which is an indicator of the importance of the social construction of interests and identity. For example, Norway's identity may shape its national interests, and one of those interests might be security, but the concept of security and how it can be achieved may be linked to Norway's identity.National Role Conceptions, a concept first developed by Holsti (1970), is defined as "the policymakers' own definitions of the general kinds of decisions, commitments, rules, and actions suitable to their state, and of the functions, if any, their state should perform [...] in the international system" (p. 245-246). These are, as mentioned in section 2, the main explanation for the role performance of a state, understood by Holsti as the "general policy behaviour of governments" (p. 245). Role performance is also influenced by what he calls role prescriptions, which come from the external environment and have, as some of their sources, system-wide values, the structure of the international system, and the traditions, rules and expectations of states expressed through various legal instruments (p. 246).The notion of national role conception is related to that of politics of identity, which, in Aggestam's words (1999), is a set of ideas that policymakers use to create a sense of solidarity and cohesion and thus to legitimise general trust in a nation's foreign policy. She argues that speeches sometimes reveal subjective we-feelings of a cultural community related to territory, myths, rituals, institutions, and customs, and she refers to the "institutionalisation" of national identity, which makes identity constructions relatively resistant to change. Moreover, citing March & Olsen (1998), she indicates that certain practices and rules of behaviour that legitimise and explain specific identity constructions are reinforced by such institutionalisation.The starting point of the present study is, therefore, the idea that Norway's national role conception is that of a small, rich, peaceful, democratic state, whose official discourse in peace engagement, especially since the 1990s, emphasises its altruistic contribution as a "peaceful nation that has the values, competences and economic resources" for such an endeavour, but whose work is also "beneficial for Norway's own interests" (Stokke, 2014, p.8).3.2. Idealism, realism, and mediation as foreign policyThere is no generally accepted definition of idealism because there is no settled ontology of the term but, according to Wilson (2012), it generally refers to any goal, idea, or practice that is considered impractical from a state perspective, for example the prohibition and disarmament of nuclear weapons, or global eradication of poverty. In IR it is normally used in both the broad and narrow senses. Broadly speaking, idealism seeks to transcend anarchy to create a more harmonious world order while, in the narrow sense, it is a doctrine tied to the inter-war period (1919-1939) and seen as emphasising the growing interdependence of mankind. I shall focus on the first meaning, which refers to "an approach to international politics that seeks to advance certain ideals or moral goals, for example, making the world a more peaceful or just place" (Wilson, 2019).Realism is a substantive theory of IR that considers states to be the main actors in the international arena, and mainly concerned with the pursuit of their own national interests, security, and struggle for power. Realists view the international arena as a sphere without justice, and with active or potential conflict among its members. They show scepticism about the relevance of ethical norms (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017). This theory has a variety of ramifications but in this study I consider, first and foremost, classical realism because, although idealism is usually heavily criticised by realists, according to Barkin (2003), classical realism perceives the art of international politics as "the practical balancing of the demands of power on the one hand and morality on the other—a dialectic between power and morality [...]. Idealism, for the classical realist, is necessary to inform our actions and underlie our interests in the pursuit of international politics, but realism will always remain a necessary part of relations among states" (p.333). Also relevant is the perspective of neoclassical realism because, while classical realism focuses on the system-level factors, neoclassical realism considers domestic-level factors as variables that can shape foreign policy, which is highly pertinent if NRC theory is used to explain Norway's behaviour in the international arena. Neoclassical realism considers that "objective reality exists, but decision making is impaired by uncertainty and the complexity of the environment" (Rathbun, 2008, p.296).According to Touval (2003), mediation as foreign policy needs to be understood as a policy instrument, as distinct from mediation theory. He argues that it derives from the mediator's perception of the international system, its foreign policy objectives and strategies, and domestic needs. I would also argue that it stems from the mediator's own national role conception and self-perception. Touval (2003) considers that ending a conflict is no longer the main concern of the mediating state, but only a part of a broadly conceived foreign policy as the mediation is also shaped by affairs that are external to the conflict. He highlights three issues arising from a state's international and domestic concerns: (1) mediation is perceived by the public and the officials engaged in it as a moral obligation, which is seldom criticised; (2) foreign and domestic motivations, apart from being an incentive for states to engage in mediation, also shape their strategies and tactics of the mediation; (3) the mediation is evaluated not only in terms of settlement of a dispute, but also the primary goals motivating the mediation. Beriker (2017) offers an expanded perspective of Touval's work, arguing that once mediation is proven to be a viable foreign policy tool, engaging in mediation enables medium-sized powers to create a political space that otherwise would not be available. 4. METHODOLOGYThis study is both descriptive and explanatory, as it inquires more deeply into the events as well as exploring why and how Norway became involved in the Venezuela peace process from 2017 to May 2023. In a deductive approach, existing theories —NRC, mediation as foreign policy, idealism, and realism— are drawn on to explain Norway's behaviour in its peacebuilding policy. The epistemology used is empiricism, since the focus is explanation rather than interpretation, and the ontology is pragmatist because, while the world is understood as existing independently from social actors, the influence of these actors to shape social realities should also be taken into account, together with the fact that, in some cases, this may affect realities existing independently of them.The methods are qualitative, as information provided with quantitative methods would be too superficial for a study that seeks to determine the existence and the characteristics of Norway's engagement in the Venezuelan peace process. The analysis is primarily based on a range of online primary and secondary sources, including government reports, memorandums of understanding, recorded interviews, articles, and academic publications. I consulted these sources, first, for better understanding of the issues and to organise this material around the research question, as well as to identify possible gaps of knowledge. I then conducted semi-structured interviews, with an official from the Norwegian MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and a Norwegian academic, to fill some of the previously identified knowledge gaps, to record their perceptions, and to triangulate the documentary information thus gathered.The first interview, conducted by videoconference on 2 August 2023, was with Professor Benedicte Bull, from the University of Oslo and, inter alia, president of the Nordic Institute for Latin American Studies, whose research has been focused on Venezuela in recent years. The second was with David C. Jourdan, who coordinates the Norwegian MFA's facilitation team in the Venezuelan peace process. This interview was conducted in Oslo on 8 August 2023. Both Bull and Jourdan have given their consent to use their names in the present study. NOREF was also contacted but stated that it could not give interviews on the Venezuelan peace process. 5. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION5.1. Norwegian involvement in the Venezuelan peace processNo official documentary information about the specific manner Norway engaged in the Venezuela conflict during 2017 and 2018 has been found, apart from the mere fact stated in the NOREF website that it was engaged in talks on the conflict in those years. According to its strategic plan 2019-2023, NOREF is a "non-state actor that is able to complement formal Norwegian peacemaking efforts [... and] build directly on the Norwegian tradition of informal conflict resolution". This makes it possible "to support formal peace processes (track I), and informal back-channel conflict diplomacy (track 1.5 and 2)" (NOREF, 2019). This institution has a permanent staff of professionals, experts in conflict resolution, and is governed by a board whose director is appointed by the Norwegian MFA, and whose members come, in general, from different areas of the public sector. In the interview with David C. Jourdan of the Norwegian MFA (2023), he confirmed that NOREF's engagement consists of track 2 approaches. Moreover, he stressed that, although NOREF receives public funds and works closely with the Norwegian state, it is a separate, independent institution. Norway's involvement in the peace process after 2019, when it became public, is described in some detail below. 2019: the first official talksAccording to the Norwegian MFA (2023), Norway has been involved in Venezuela since 2018. However, it was only in May 2019 that talks between the Venezuelan parties, facilitated by Norway, first became public. In this early stage, the negotiations between the delegations of Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó lasted until August 2019, and although significant progress was made, no agreements for solving the political conflict were reached. However, the Norwegian MFA (2023) stresses that these negotiations were a stepping-stone for further talks between the parties, which signed a collaboration agreement in June 2020, with the objective of using frozen funds in the U.S. for a joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with support from the Pan American Health Organisation. Several newspaper articles describing the negotiations during that year provide additional information that has been used in this study.In May 2019, Juan Guaidó sent a delegation to Oslo to participate in exploratory talks with representatives of Maduro's government to try to find a solution to the political crisis the country had faced since Guaidó declared himself acting president of Venezuela at the beginning of that year (NRK, 2019a), information that was confirmed by Jorge Valero, Venezuela's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, and the UN spokesperson in New York, Stephane Dujarric. The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) reported the talks for the first time on 15 May but, according to an anonymous source, this was the second time that the parties had been in Oslo, and negotiations had previously been taking place in Cuba.Shortly afterwards, on the night between 16 and 17 May, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release confirming that there had been contacts between key political actors in Venezuela as a part of an exploratory phase aiming to find a solution to the country's situation. The Maduro government representatives present at the talks were Héctor Rodríguez, governor of the province of Miranda, and Jorge Rodríguez, minister of Communication. The opposition representatives were Gerardo Blyde, member of parliament, and Fernando Martínez Mattola, who had been minister during the government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez.In the last week of May 2019, the Norwegian minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the parties would travel again to Oslo during the following week to continue with the process (NRK, 2019b). Almost at the same time, Juan Guaidó insisted that the meetings in Oslo were not part of a dialogue or negotiation, but a mediation in Norway (El Nacional, 2019). According to Voice of America/Voz de América (VOA) (2019a), Nicolás Maduro appeared a few days later on the Venezuelan public TV channel after the opposition declared that the conversations in Oslo that week had ended on 29 May without any agreement being reached. Maduro stated that conversations had been taking place in secret during the three previous months, that he was proud of his delegation, and that dialogue with the opposition had been constructive. Moreover, he insisted on his wish to find a peaceful solution for Venezuela. Indeed, VOA pointed out that Dag Nylander, a Norwegian diplomat who would become chief facilitator of the Venezuelan peace process, had been travelling to Caracas and meeting with the political actors involved in the crisis since January 2019.The peace talks resumed one month later in Barbados. On 11 July 2019, after three days of conversations, Norway announced that the negotiations would continue (Reuters, 2019). Yet, only a few weeks later, the Maduro government withdrew from the talks when the U.S. president, Donald Trump, announced his decision to block U.S. citizens from engaging in business in Venezuela and to freeze the country's assets in the U.S. According to the Venezuelan government, this had been instigated by Juan Guaidó, while the opposition accused the government of reneging on its commitment to dialogue. Norway's facilitator, Dag Nylander, took note that the planned meetings would not take place and emphasised Norway's role as a facilitator acting at the request of the parties and planning the meetings according to their availability. He added that the facilitation process would continue as long as the parties wished, and provided that there was a realistic position on a solution in the best interests of the Venezuelan people (VG, 2019).According to Bull (2023), Norway, as the facilitating country, was displeased when the talks went public in May, believing that this was premature and that it would complicate the peace process. She also stresses that the Trump administration had no clear strategy for ending the conflict and that, when the U.S. sanctions were announced, there had not been any proper coordination with Norway. She also notes that mentions of the U.S. seem to refer to a single homogeneous actor, when the reality is that there are many actors involved, among them the Pentagon and the Department of State, and these actors may work in different directions, sometimes disrupting a given policy. The Norwegian MFA (2023) confirms it was not aware of the U.S. sanctions that were announced in early August 2019. Both parties and facilitator were taken by surprise.2021: The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding and negotiation rounds in MexicoA year and a half later, in March 2021, new exploratory talks began after the Biden administration's position on Venezuela allowed the parties to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which led to the launch of a new negotiation process, starting in August that year. On 5 August, the Mexican President, Manuel López Obrador confirmed that Mexico would host talks between the government of Venezuela and the opposition (Reuters, 2021) and, a few days later, the Norwegian government confirmed its involvement with a tweet (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2021a). The new negotiation process was launched in Mexico City on 13 August, with Dag Nylander as chief facilitator, Jorge Rodríguez representing the Venezuelan (Maduro's) government, and Gerardo Blyde representing the Unitary Platform (the opposition). A MoU —which I refer to in more detail in section 5.3— was released, defining the objective, agenda, method, and composition of the negotiation team. The Norwegian minister of Foreign Affairs, Ine Eriksen Søreide, declared in a press note that the parties were ready to negotiate constructively and that, in the process, they would consult members of civil society as well as political actors. She also noted that there was mutual agreement on the sensitive nature of the negotiations, which was necessary for giving the parties space to make progress (Norwegian MFA 2021b).A second round of negotiations took place at the beginning of September 2021. The parties released a joint statement reporting that two agreements had been reached, the first being to act jointly in the claim of Venezuelan sovereignty over Guyana Esequiba, and the second, a "partial agreement on the social protection of the Venezuelan people". The parties conveyed that the points to be addressed in the following round of negotiations would be "respect for the Constitutional Rule of Law", protection of the national economy, and measures for the social protection of the Venezuelan people.Between the second and the third rounds of negotiation, Erna Solberg, the Norwegian Prime Minister, spoke at the UN General Assembly on 21 September, referring to Venezuela as a country where human right violations were occurring. Her comment was criticised by Dag Nylander as it could, he said, damage the credibility of Norway's role. In a tweet on 25 September, the MFA reaffirmed its commitment as an impartial facilitator in the negotiations and declared that the statement in the UN should not be interpreted as being inconsistent with that (NRK, 2021). The Venezuelan government responded to this diplomatic hitch with a slight delay in proceedings when its representatives arrived one day late at the negotiation round scheduled in Mexico from 24 to 27 September, but which finally took place after 25 September (Euronews, 2021).After this third round of negotiations, the parties released a new joint statement, focused this time on the issue of inclusion and, specifically, on the need for a gender focus in the negotiations, identification of inclusive consultation mechanisms for political and social actors, and condemnation of xenophobic attacks on Venezuelan migrants that had recently occurred in Chile. According to an article by Diego Santander in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo (2021), this third round was so fraught with problems that no specific agreements were reached. Maduro's delegation insisted on its plans to include Alex Saab in the negotiation. Saab, a Venezuelan businessman, was accused of being Maduro's front man, and a key figure in the international economic and financial activities to circumvent the U.S. economic sanctions against his government. However, Saab had been arrested for money laundering in June 2020 in Cabo Verde and was extradited to the U.S. on the weekend of October 16.Negotiations, set for 17 October, were suspended on 16 October when the Maduro government decided not to participate in the next round of negotiations, because of Saab's extradition, which Jorge Rodríguez referred to as a "kidnapping" as it had been carried out "without a warrant and without due process" and accused the U.S. of trying to prevent the dialogue (Gilbert, 2021). The Norwegian government then tweeted that it was still convinced that the negotiations were the only solution for Venezuela, and that it would keep working to encourage the parties to continue (Norwegian MFA, 2021c). In Bull's opinion (2023), while the U.S. system may have its faults, the legal proceedings are independent from political powers so, on that occasion, there was little that U.S. politicians could do to stop the extradition.2022 — 2023: talks after the beginning of the war in UkraineIn March 2022, a new chapter of the dialogue began after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A U.S. delegation formed by members of the Department of State visited Caracas to meet with the Venezuelan government and discuss an eventual isolation of Vladimir Putin. Some analysts also indicated that Venezuela was seen as a possible alternative oil supplier if the U.S. opted to restrict oil exports from Russia, which meant that removal of the sanctions on Venezuela could be considered (VOA, 2022a). Indeed, in May 2022, the U.S. announced that economic sanctions against Venezuela would be eased as a gesture in favour of reactivating the dialogues and also allowing the U.S. company Chevron to negotiate potential future activities with the state-owned oil and natural gas company PDVSA (Agobian, 2022). According to the Norwegian MFA (2023), these actions were a catalyst for the reactivation of the negotiations.Immediately after the announcement, Jorge Rodríguez and Gerardo Blyde met to discuss renewal of the talks (Ocando Alex, 2022a) but, by the end of May, according to Reuters, the Venezuelan government had demanded the withdrawal of Norway as a facilitator, and the presence of Russia (formally an accompanying country in the negotiations after 2021) as conditions for reactivating the negotiations. However, convinced that the Norwegians were their only guarantee for a successful process, the opposition disagreed (Oré, 2022). Bull (2023) specifies that the stance of the Venezuelan government might have been because it saw Norway as taking an excessively "pro-allies" position after the start of the war in Ukraine. She adds that Norway prefers to involve Russia and other big powers in the negotiations rather than excluding them, as they would provide legitimacy to the Mexico talks as the only acceptable platform for solving the Venezuelan political crisis. When interviewed, David C. Jourdan of the Norwegian MFA (2023), made it clear that Norway was never asked to relinquish its role as facilitator. Management of the process resides with the parties, which have remained committed to the MoU that names Norway as the facilitating country.On 21 and 22 June 2022, the Norwegian government held the Oslo Forum, an annual retreat focused on conflict mediation and peace processes. Around 100 conflict mediators, experts, peace process actors, and high-level decision makers from around the world gathered at Losby Gods Manor with the goal of sharing their experience on conflict resolution and peace diplomacy (Norwegian MFA, 2022). Among the peace process actors who attended the Oslo Forum were Jorge Rodríguez and Gerardo Blyde. A Norwegian source told VOA (2022b) that it was "probable" that the conversations would be initiated again, but "not immediately".On 14 September 2022, a group of 18 countries from the Americas and Europe agreed to call upon Maduro and the opposition to urge a resumption of the negotiations in Mexico (Ocando Alex, 2022b).Official negotiations began again on 26 November 2022. This time, a joint statement was issued indicating that the main agenda of the meeting would be social protection of the people. A partial agreement was reached, in which the measures agreed upon were: 1) creation of an organism to implement specific actions and programmes for the social protection of the Venezuelan people (Mesa Nacional de Atención Social, or MNAS); 2) creation of an organism auxiliary to the MNAS to evaluate its processes and the effects of implementation of the measurements adopted; 3) definition of the social areas which, requiring the most urgent attention, needed to be addressed through specific programmes, in particular the public health system, the national electrical system, development of the World Food Programme, educational infrastructure, and rebuilding of the infrastructure damaged as a consequence of the torrential rains in the latter half of 2022; 4) requesting from the UN support for the design and creation of a fund for social support of the Venezuelan people; 5) identification of frozen assets belonging to the Venezuelan state that might be progressively accessed and incorporated into this fund; 6) creation of a commission to assess and verify implementation of the agreement.After this meeting, the negotiations stalled again when the Venezuelan government accused the opposition of not complying with the agreement reached but, mainly and above all, because the frozen US$3,000 million that were to be incorporated into the Fund for the Social Protection of the Venezuelan People had not yet been released (August 2023). According to Maduro, this was a condition sine qua non for resuming the talks. The Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, organised a conference on 25 April 2023 in Bogotá, with representatives from numerous countries to discuss the Venezuelan situation. The shared positions of the Venezuelan government and the opposition were explained to the international community, in particular regarding the removal of sanctions, free elections, and reactivation of the peace talks. One of the shared positions for renewal of the talks was that of establishing the Fund for the Social Protection of the Venezuelan People (Ramírez Vargas & Alcalde, 2023). The message that came out of the Venezuela Conference of Bogotá was very clear: the UN trust fund for Venezuela should be set up as swiftly as possible. According to a Reuters report by Spetalnik, Sequera and Armas (2023), on 19 May the Biden administration notified the UN that the money could operate within the U.S. financial system, and that there would be no risk of creditors seizing it to repay the outstanding Venezuelan debt. Accordingly, the UN-administered fund could have been operative at the end of May 2023. However, the decision to establish the trust fund ultimately lies with the UN Secretariat in New York and some insiders allude to the complexity of the process involved and stress that establishing the fund depends on a number of factors. As of late August 2023, it had not been established by the UN. 5.2. Norway's distinctive approach to peace diplomacyIn an interview for the Centre of Humanitarian Dialogue, when asked about the distinctive approach of Norwegian diplomacy in international conflicts, Dag Nylander (2020) identified four main elements: (a) collaboration with Norwegian and international NGOs, (b) low-key diplomacy, (c) long-term commitment, and (d) the ability to make quick decisions.[5] In this section, these four elements will be briefly discussed.Norway's distinctive approach to its engagement in peace processes and with non-state actors was defined after the decentralisation of its foreign policy in the early 1990s. Humanitarian assistance and development policies called for closer cooperation between the Norwegian MFA and non-governmental actors and, according to Lehti (2014), this approach was extended to the area of peace-making. In the 1990s the Ministry responded positively to proposals and initiatives from various NGOs and well-connected individuals with regard to conflictive areas. The range of actors involved in peace-making was broadened, and Norway was then able to act beyond the bounds of government-centred diplomacy with a distinctive, more informal approach to peace diplomacy. Ann Kelleher and James Taulbe (2006) refer to this approach as "Track I½ Diplomacy", understanding Track I diplomacy as that with official representatives of governments and Track II diplomacy as that involving unofficial representatives and sectors of the civil society. An important feature of the collaboration between the state, NGOs and research institutions is that it is extensively funded by the state (Bandarage, 2011). Indeed, some Norwegian NGOs receive more than 90% of their funding from the state which, in Kelleher's view (2006), almost makes them quasi-governmental organisations.As for low-key diplomacy, Nylander (2020) affirms that activities pertaining to peace diplomacy rarely appear in the news, and that they are discreet and unnoticed, often with the involvement of low-level and mid-level diplomats, an approach that allows flexibility in seeking opportunities and in dealing with problems with relative freedom.Norway's long-term commitment to peace diplomacy is based on a broad political consensus for the promotion of peace and reconciliation. Hence, changes of government will not influence the country's engagement in any given conflict. According to the MFA (2000), the goal is not only ending violence but also support for economic, social, and political processes that lead to durable liberal peace in the country concerned.Finally, the ability of Norwegian diplomats to make quick decisions stems from the smallness of the country, not only in terms of population but also social distance. Dag Nylander (2020) mentions that the distance between a diplomat in the field and the ministry of Foreign Affairs is very short, and that it takes just a quick phone call or a text message, sometimes directly to the Minister, to obtain any clearance that may be needed. 5.3 Norwegian approach to facilitation the Venezuelan peace processNorway's approach to facilitation in Venezuela is consistent with its work in other peace processes. It began with secret talks between the parties (low-key diplomacy) and then, having advanced towards a more public and official format, it was formalised with the MoU signed in Mexico on 13 August 2021. In the MoU, the parties defined the agenda and methods for the talks. David Jourdan of the Norwegian MFA (2023) highlighted the importance of this Memorandum, which contains not only the agenda and format for the negotiations, but also a shared vision of the process and the country.As for the method, it is important to mention that it is based on a "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" principle (comprehensive approach), although partial agreements can be reached if the parties consider that a subject has been sufficiently discussed and urgent action is required. This was the case with the two partial agreements on the Guyana Esequiba, and Social Protection of the Venezuelan people signed at the end of the talks in Mexico. This approach has its advantages, such as ensuring "big picture" negotiation, but it also comes with the risk the parties can renege anytime on anything they have agreed to. It was first used in other peace processes including Britain-Ireland in 1995, Palestine-Israel, and in Cyprus and Colombia. The Norwegian MFA (2023) emphasises that understanding the needs of the parties and ensuring that they are in charge of the process, has been key to making progress throughout the negotiations. The Venezuelan conflict is political in nature and requires political solutions, and the negotiation process provides a confidential space where the two parties have an opportunity to reconcile their interests. David Jourdan, sharing the MFA's approach to the political process, points out that Norway has probably been a more active facilitator in the Venezuelan negotiations than in other peace processes.An essential point of the MoU is participation, as it establishes mechanisms of consultation for political and social actors. The aim is for the process to be as inclusive and legitimate as possible. However, there is little information available as to whether this is actually the case and David Jourdan (2023) admits that it is not yet possible to speak of results in this area.Moreover, it should be noted that the Norwegian approach to facilitation, based on discretion and confidentiality, is one thing and how the parties actually behave is quite another matter. On more than one occasion, as can be seen in several documents and declarations, the Norwegian government has emphasised the need for the parties to be careful with their public declarations. In an interview with El País in February 2023, Anniken Huitfeldt, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, wryly acknowledges an anecdote sometimes repeated by high-profile Venezuelan politicians, according to which politicians will normally control themselves in public but, in private, tell someone else what they really think but, in Venezuela, the opposite occurs: what is said in private becomes amplified in front of a microphone (Lafuente 2023). Vicente Díaz, former director of the Venezuelan National Electoral Council, who participated in the talks held in the Dominican Republic, Oslo, and Barbados says that, since the process in Mexico was "very public" (as occurred in the Dominican Republic), it created difficulties for the parties, since national and international expectations were generated, which meant that more attention was given to audiences than to the talks (openDemocracy 2022). 5.4 Norwegian interests in VenezuelaIn this section and in keeping with the theoretical framework described above, I discuss four possible reasons for Norway's mediation in the Venezuelan conflict: (a) peace and stability (value-oriented diplomacy), (b) reputation, (c) political interests, and (d) economic interests.Value-oriented diplomacy focused on peace promotion makes sense for Norway, a country whose identity as a peaceful country and peace broker has existed at least since the late 19th century. Those values are so widely embedded that a broad political consensus exists among the population over a peace promotion policy, supported institutionally and by an extensive network of non-state actors coordinated by the state. Norway's constructed identity as a peace broker (especially intensified since the 1990s) means that the country acts as such. Moreover, promotion of such values makes even more sense when security has become globalised, and when a conflict in a faraway country can have humanitarian, political, economic, and ecological consequences in distant parts of the world. In this sense, value-oriented diplomacy may acquire realist motivations although, according to Bull (2023), this is discourse that appeared, above all from the 1980s, to justify Norway's involvement in peace processes. One of its proponents was the diplomat and former Labour Party politician, Jan Egeland.Ensuring peace and stability in Venezuela could, for example, (1) help to mitigate the external displacement crisis, which mainly affects neighbouring countries like Colombia and Ecuador as well as the U.S. and others in Europe, with all the humanitarian and economic consequences for those receiving refugees; (2) ensure Venezuela's participation, as a democratic state, in international organisations, thus promoting democratic values and human rights; (3) promote social and economic development in the country, which would create value for its nationals as well as attracting international investment and; (4) finally, through social and economic development, reduce the presence of paramilitary organisations in the country, including the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), which is involved in drug trafficking. During the interview with David Jourdan (2023), we shared these points and he replied that this may well be so, but that such possibilities could also arise as a consequence of a political settlement that includes the removal of the sanctions. He added that the main reasons for Norway's peace diplomacy are the goals of preventing and reducing human suffering, as well as contributing to peaceful societies and stability.Peace diplomacy does not give rapid results (when it actually gives results), but Norway sees it as a policy consistent with its values, and as one whose long-term effects are sufficiently relevant as to justify investment in it.When it comes to image and reputation, Norway's approach on peace has been used as a public diplomacy branding tool, together with the country's natural environment and gender equality, to solve one of the image problems of small countries: invisibility.Indeed, discretion and a low profile do not necessarily mean invisibility, and as long as the right aspects of Norway's peace diplomacy are emphasised in a public diplomacy strategy —for example its role as a facilitator, an engaged partner, and good multilateralist— the discretion that peace diplomacy requires would not be jeopardised (Leonard and Small, 2003). Success in mediation of the Venezuelan conflict would, of course, be positive for Norway's image as a peace broker, although this constructed image is also enhanced through pertinent media coverage mentioning the Norwegian involvement during the Venezuelan peace process. This can be explained by NRC theory since the Norwegian image is constructed not only through success in a certain process but also through the mediating process itself. To give one example, the Google search "peace talks Venezuela Norway" offers almost 4.85 million results, while the Spanish search with "mediación de paz Venezuela Noruega" offers 1.28 million results. Moreover, when Norway uses the word "facilitation"2 it transfers responsibility for the results to the parties, implying that it has the role of supporting and accompanying them, but it will not be responsible if the parties decide that they do not want to continue with the process. This safeguard for Norway's image as a peace broker applies to the Venezuelan case.Political influence has also been identified as one of Norway's possible interests. As Matlary (2003) notes, access to key international actors can result from Norway's engagement in peace processes, including in the case of Venezuela, especially in a context of international energy insecurity, and political tensions due to the high-profile conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In my interview with David Jourdain (2023), "close dialogue with key international stakeholders" together with increased political capital were mentioned as benefits that Norway could reap by engaging in Venezuela. He also pointed out that one of the key features of this conflict is the importance of the U.S. as an actor with the capacity to contribute to the outcome of the peace process.The U.S. is now particularly concerned to find new energy suppliers, and ensuring political stability in Venezuela could provide international legitimacy for oil and gas transactions with its government. Giovanna de Michele, internationalist lecturer at the Central University of Venezuela, told VOA that the best way to extract oil from Venezuela would be through U.S. companies, but the sanctions would have to be eased if this was to happen (Ramírez Vargas & Alcalde 2023). Norway offers an internationally recognised platform for making this possible: the talks in Mexico. It could therefore be a key actor in helping to resolve the political crisis in Venezuela while also supporting an ally, which would contribute to its status as a reliable partner of the U.S. However, as Matlary notes, it is difficult to quantify or define the scope of the access Norway gleans from its peace policy.Finally, with regard to economic interests, there are currently no Norwegian state-owned companies operating in Venezuela, although they can be represented through the investments of the Norwegian National Pension Fund3 in foreign companies that do operate in the country, for example, some Colombian companies, among them Bancolombia, Banco Popular, Banco Davivienda, and Cementos Argos. And, at the beginning of 2023, Ecopetrol, which is financed by Norfund, asked the U.S. for permission to negotiate with the state-owned company PDVSA to explore gas imports from Venezuela to Colombia (Quesada 2023). Among Norwegian investments in the U.S. are Chevron and Occidental Petroleum Corp, and the U.S. has recently given permission to Chevron to negotiate with the PDVSA and, at the end of 2022, a United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) court found that Venezuela was liable for discriminatory conduct in its payment of dividends from an oil and gas venture and ordered Venezuela to pay US$105 million to a Barbadian subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum Corp (Ballantyne 2022). If an improved political situation in Venezuela increases the revenues of these companies, it could also be positive for Norwegian investments.It should be added that, until 2021, Statoil (later Equinor), the national oil company of Norway, was present in Venezuela where it invested more than one billion dollars between 1995 and 2013 and participated in the Sincor heavy crude oil project with Total and PDVSA. However, due to concerns about the workforce and practical difficulties, Equinor pulled out of the project and transferred its 9.67% participation to CVP, a subsidiary of PDVSA, although it did keep its 51% stake in the exploration license of block 4 on Plataforma Deltana off Cocuina(Øye Gjerde, n.d.). Accordingly, Equinor participation in Venezuela is currently on hold but a greater presence in Venezuela of Norwegian companies, in particular from the oil and gas sector is possible if the country's situation improves.To sum up, although economic links between Norway and Venezuela do exist, they would seem to be limited and not sufficient to explain Norway's participation as a facilitator in the Venezuelan peace process. 6. CONCLUSIONSThe core question of this study is why and how does Norway facilitate the Venezuela peace talks? The results suggest that, for Norway as a facilitator of the Venezuelan peace process, the main goals of mediation-as-foreign-policy are humanitarian, security (better understood as promoting stability in the region), projection of its image as a peaceful nation and a peacemaker, and of its status vis-à-vis key international actors (especially the U.S.).All these goals can be explained through the Holsti's theory of National Role Conceptions (NRC) and Norway's own role prescription as a small, democratic, and peaceful nation, which means it would promote these values through altruistic (idealist) and non-altruistic (realist) actions and perspectives.Interestingly, economic factors do not seem to play a major role as a mediation-as-foreign-policy objective. The economic ties between Norway and Venezuela are presently not significant and, thanks to the diversification of the investment portfolio of the Norwegian National Pension Fund, Venezuela only represents a very small part of Norwegian economic interests.It is therefore relevant to consider the importance of constructivist aspects such as national values and self-conception in shaping the foreign policy of small countries, despite the apparent predominance of realpolitik aspects in an international context of increasing competition. These constructivist aspects offer key information for understanding and explaining the behaviour of small countries and should not be overlooked.Besides, it is worth reflecting on the definition of a mediation success in real, and in mediation-as-foreign policy terms. In the real sense, mediation is successful when it produces long-term reconciliation between the parties, in the eyes of a domestic audience while, for an audience external to the conflict, mediation may be successful simply when a peace agreement between the parties is signed. Meanwhile, for the mediating country or its allies, a mediation is deemed effective when foreign policy objectives are achieved. The approach used by Norwegian mediators in the Venezuelan process is similar to that of previous peace processes. It starts with the organisation of secret meetings and then advances towards a more public and official format. However, some distinctive traits of this peace process have been (1) a somewhat more active role of Norway as a facilitator when compared to other peace processes, (2) the weighty influence of the U.S. in causing setbacks or advances in the negotiations , and (3) premature publicity of this process, when the parties have been too eager to share their views with the press and the public, which may have been an obstacle for achieving progress. Despite these challenges, as of November 2023, Norway has continued to honour its long-term commitment to achieving a peaceful solution to the Venezuelan conflict.This study has created a first timeline of the Norwegian involvement in the Venezuelan peace process by means of consulting information in primary and secondary sources and, when relevant, adding further details obtained in interviews with two experts. This timeline provides an overview of the main milestones of the peace process while highlighting Norway's role as a facilitating country. Possible reasons for its engagement in the Venezuelan peace process have been identified. At a tactical level, the moral and security elements seem to be a high priority for people working in the field. These actors have considerable expertise in conflict resolution and perform their duties diligently. At a more strategic and state-centred level, besides the moral and security components, attention is given to building political capital by means of offering an attractive image to international stakeholders, especially close allies like the U.S. This is, therefore, an excellent example of the importance of peace diplomacy as a soft power tool for a middle-level country like Norway.The limits of the study arise from the nature of an ongoing mediation process. Since silence sometimes carries more weight than words and as discretion is necessary for the process to move forward, only limited information could be directly obtained from relevant actors in the peace talks. In terms of Norway's interests in certain areas, the limits of qualitative methods have not allowed quantification of the importance of each of these interests. The aim of the interviews was to obtain in-depth information that could confirm that such interests exist, and to provide distinctive details that might enrich knowledge of this peace process, rather than quantifying the results. Finally, now that Norway's possible interests as a facilitator have been identified, future research could be addressed at quantifying the weight of each of them in Norway's peacebuilding policy over the last two decades. 7. ReferencesAggestam, Lisbeth. "Role Conceptions and the Politics of Identity in Foreign Policy". ARENA Center for European Studies Working Paper, vol. 99/8 (1999). 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"Idealism in international relations" in: Dowding, Keith (ed.) Encyclopedia of Power, Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, p. 332-333.Notes:1- Originally consisting of 12 Latin American nations and formally created on 8 August 2017, the Lima Group is a multilateral body whose goal is to explore mechanisms for a peaceful solution to the political crisis in Venezuela and restoration of a democratic order (Government of Colombia 2017).2- In this study, I use the terms "mediation" and "facilitation" interchangeably. However, mediation normally involves a formal mandate from the parties of a conflict, covering involvement in both the substance and process of the negotiation, while a facilitator is less directive (Greminger 2007).3- The Norwegian National Pension Fund, the world's largest sovereign fund, has investments in over 9,000 companies in 70 countries (Oljefondet n.d.). Key words: Venezuela, Norway, national role conception, mediation, peacebuilding, foreign policy, conflict resolutionDOI: https://doi.org/10.24241/docCIDOB.2024.15/enE-ISSN: 2339-9570