New Nansen Professor at the University of Akureyri

Gunnar Rekvig has been selected as the 2019-2020 Nansen Professor in Arctic studies at the University of Akureyri. Rekvig holds a PhD in International and Regional Studies from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS), and an MPhil degree in Peace and Conflict Transformation from UiT The Arctic University of Norway. He was previously an Assistant Professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, World Language and Society Education Center, Tokyo, Japan.

He has lectured extensively in Japan for institutions such as the United Nations University, Japanese Military Colleges, the Japanese Defense Ministry, and for the Secretariat of the International Peace Cooperation Headquarters, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. He has also been a political advisor for Upper House Members of the Japanese Diet. Amongst these appointments, he helped advocate Japan’s constitutional peace clause, Article 9, for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and in raising awareness of the peace clause in Norway with op-ed articles.

Rekvig’s research interests include international politics of the Nordic Arctic (North Atlantic and Barents Regions), specifically historical and contemporary perspectives in peace and trust-building within this area with lessons for Northeast Asian peace and security today. His research is at the cutting edge of North Atlantic and Arctic peace research and is of key policy value to both Icelandic and Norwegian foreign- and security policies.

At present, he is also working on his forthcoming book The Nordic Peace and Northeast Asia — Approaches, Solutions, and Principles of Conflict Transformation to be published by Springer Nature. The book will compare and contrast the Nordic Peace, its solutions, principles, and lessons after 1814 with Northeast Asia after the Second World War.