Research Interests
I mainly research the Arab-Israeli conflict with a focus on the various diplomatic endeavours ranging from the late 1940s up until today.
I have done research and published on various phases in this history, including:
- The UN negotiations following the 1948 war
- The Zionist movement, and later Israel's, succesful attempt to gain international recognition and UN membership
- The US lead negotiations during the late 1970s leading to the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty
- The Obama era initiative to reach Israeli-Palestinian peace
- The history of US Jerusalem policy
A central focus of my research is the lack of Palestinian inclusion in these international approaches to the conflict.
Background
Working experience:
2018 - : Senior Researcher at PRIO
2016-2018: Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences
2016 - : Editor of Store Norske Leksikon articles on the Middle East
2011-2016: PhD Candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU
2011: Researcher at PRIO
2010: Board member of the Nordic Society for Middle East Studies
January 2010 -2011 : Editor, Babylon, Nordisk Tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier
January - May 2010: Booknote Editor, Journal of Peace Research.
2009 - 2010: Guest lecturer at the University of Oslo: "Neighbourhood Bully? The Great Powers and the Middle East Since 1945"
December 2008 - : Research Assistant for Professor Hilde Henriksen Waage
August 2008 - February 2010: Managing editor, Journal of Peace Research
May 2008 - January 2010: Managing Editor, Babylon, Nordisk Tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier
January-July 2007: Trainee at the Norwegian Embassy in Amman, Jordan.
2004 - 2007: Board member of Spire, The Development Fund Youth, a Norwegian NGO.
2003 - 2006: Assistant Editor at Solum Forlag, Solum Publishing House.
Education:
2011-2016: PhD in History at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
2006-2008: MA in History at the University of Oslo (UiO)
2002-2005: BA in History at the University of Oslo (UiO)
1999-2002: International Baccalaureate (IB), St. Stephen's School of Rome. Received the Bilingual Diploma.
Languages spoken:
Bilingual Norwegian and English.
Can speak Italian.
Basic Arabic
Blog Posts
Russia’s war in Ukraine has been met with global condemnation drawing NATO and the EU closer together in coordinating collective responses. In contrast to this coordinated front among US, French and German responses, it is worth drawing attention to the mixed regional responses among states in the Middle East for ... Read more »
In a series of brief blog posts, researchers of the PRIO Middle East Centre offer their reflections on the unfolding Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The two-way rocket salvos into and from Gaza feels like a tedious repetition of tragedies past. The world has seen this before, and tragically we will probably see ... Read more »
Posted by Kjersti G. Berg & Jørgen Jensehaugen on Tuesday, 2 February 2021
On 9 November 2020 Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, tweeted: “I am pained to announce that despite all efforts to raise the resources for @UNRWA 2020, I informed our 28,000 staff that we do not have enough funds to pay their salaries in full this month”. This is ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Jensehaugen on Thursday, 19 November 2020
On 19 November 2020 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo became the most senior US politician to officially visit an Israeli settlement on the occupied West Bank. This visit, and his ensuing statement that products from Israeli settlements can be labeled as “Made in Israel”, mark the swan song of ... Read more »
With a winner finally announced in the US election, researchers at the PRIO Middle East Centre present a few thoughts on what a Biden presidency could mean for the Middle East. What are likely to be the guiding foreign policy principles of a Biden administration and how will regional and ... Read more »
The fire at the Moria camp underlines the depth of the crisis in the international system intended to protect people fleeing their home countries. Under the Refugee Convention, people in need of asylum must be given the opportunity to apply for it. The fundamental flaws in this system weighs heavily ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Jensehaugen on Monday, 21 September 2020
This week, PRIO is posting a series of blogs to mark Peer Review Week 2020. In today’s blog, Jørgen Jensehaugen draws on his own experience as an author, editor and reviewer to provide some advice to early career researchers in how to deal with peer review, highlighting challenges that can ... Read more »
Will Palestinians living in the annexed areas be offered Israeli citizenship, or will they become non-citizens within Israel? Israel’s new government will be able to start annexing parts of the occupied West Bank as early as 1 July 2020. What should the world do about it? This is not the ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Jensehaugen on Wednesday, 11 March 2020
On March 3 the PRIO-CSS Jordan seminar, “Preserving Spaces for Dialogue in the Middle East”, was situated by the shore of the Dead Sea. The view was both beautiful and thematically fitting, because while most people associate the Dead Sea with a rather exotic seaside tourist destination, and the Kingdom ... Read more »
On Thursday President Trump made the unprecedented move to use a foreign power to punish domestic political actors. He tweeted that Israel should bar two congresswomen from entering the country. Prior to this tweet Prime Minister Netanyahu had decided that the congresswomen should be allowed to enter, but after the ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Jensehaugen on Wednesday, 27 March 2019
It is claimed that the UN created Israel. This is only true subject to major reservations, and the relationship between the two is extremely complicated. On 14 May 2018, Israel celebrated its 70th anniversary, and in May this year it will be 70 years since the country became a member ... Read more »
Posted by Jørgen Jensehaugen on Wednesday, 17 October 2018
Forty years ago, President Jimmy Carter orchestrated peace between Israel and Egypt; yet the conflict between Israel and Palestinians is further than ever from a solution. Those outcomes are closely linked. There are lessons for President Donald Trump to learn from Carter’s experience, if he is attentive. An unprecedented breakthrough ... Read more »