Karl Gustafsson Professor

Karl Gustafsson is professor of international relations at Stockholm University . Karl’s research interests include security, power and the role of collective memory in International Relations. He is also interested in issues related to research design and how material generated on the internet can be used for IR research purposes. He has acquired

 several 

research grants, including a four-year grant from the Swedish

Research Council for a project on apologies and recognition in international politics and another four-year grant from the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg

Foundation for a project on knowledge, memory and power on the Internet in East

Asia. Karl has previously held a post-doc position at Lund University and been a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. He has been a visiting

researcher at Tokyo University, Osaka University, Keio University (Tokyo),

Academia Sinica in Taipei and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies in Copenhagen. Karl’s peer-reviewed article ‘Memory Politics and Ontological Security in Sino-Japanese Relations’ won the Wang Gungwu Prize for best article published in Asian Studies Review in 2014 and his doctoral dissertation won the Stockholm University Association’s award for best dissertation (out of 66) in the Social Sciences in 2011. He has published peer-reviewed journal articles in joiurnals such as

, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Journal of International Relations and Development, Survival, European Political Science, Memory Studies, Review of International Studies, Cooperation and Conflict, China: An International Journal, Global Affairs, The Pacific Review and Asian Perspective.

Articles published in the last few years

Memory-political Deterrence: Shielding Collective Memory and Ontological Security Through Dissuasion 

https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqae006

The insecurity of doing research and the ‘so what question’ in political science: how to develop more compelling research problems by facing anxiety 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41304-023-00448-3

Identity change, anxiety and creativity: How 19th century Japan sought to leave Asia and become part of the West 

https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/2300386

The Limitations of Strategic Narratives: The Sino-American Struggle Over the Meaning of COVID-19 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13523260.2021.1984725

The Politics of Emotions in International Relations: Who gets to feel what, whose emotions matter, and the 'history problem' in Sino-Japanese relations 

https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqab071

Why is anxiety’s positive potential so rarely realised? Creativity and change in international politics 

https://rdcu.be/cmGHv

Returning to the Roots of Ontological Security: Insights from the existentialist anxiety literature 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1354066120927073

Understanding the persistence of history-related issues in Sino-Japanese relations: From memory to forgetting 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41311-020-00219-7

International reconciliation on the Internet? Ontological security, attribution and the construction of war memory narratives in Wikipedia 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0047117819864410

Narrative power: How storytelling shapes East Asian international politics 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2019.1623498

Long live pacifism! Narrative power and Japan’s pacifist model 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09557571.2019.1623174

Temporal othering, de-securitisation and apologies: Understanding Japanese security policy change 

https://rdcu.be/bflrT

Japan’s Pacifism Is Dead 

https://iiss.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00396338.2018.1542803#.XHzqSS0lBZ0

What is the point? Teaching graduate students how to construct political science research puzzles 

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/S41304-017-0130-Y

Chinese collective memory on the Internet: Remembering the Great Famine in online encyclopaedias 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1750698017714836

Routinised recognition and anxiety: Understanding the deterioration in Sino-Japanese relations 

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0260210515000546

Recognising recognition through thick and thin: Insights from Sino-Japanese relations 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0010836715610594

The struggle over the meaning of Chinese patriotism in the 21st century 

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/629022/summary

Andra publikationer publicerade under de senaste åren

‘Beyond bilateral conflict in the international politics of memory in East Asia: Anxiety and reconciliation’, in Mälksoo, Maria (ed.) Handbook on the Politics of Memory. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar (kommande 2023).

‘Apologies after War and Atrocity’, in Richmond, Oliver and Visoka, Gëzim (eds.) 

(kommande 2021).

‘Memory politics and archives in Sino-Japanese relations’, in Boel, Jens, Canavaggio, Perrine and Quintana, Antonio Gonzalez (eds.) Archives and Human Rights. London: Routledge (2021). 

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/memory-politics-archives-sino-japanese-relations-karl-gustafsson/e/10.4324/9780429054624-17?context=ubx&refId=a107ef43-a57c-4ea8-b3cd-c8c9a520f952

‘The History Problem: The Politics of War Commemoration in East Asia’, Book review, Social Science Japan Journal 22(2): 312-315 (2019). 

https://academic.oup.com/ssjj/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ssjj/jyz004/5555990

‘Divided Lenses: Screen Memories of War in East Asia’, Book review, Pacific Affairs 91(3): 567-570 (2018).http://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/paaf/paaf/2018/00000091/00000003/art00015#expand/collapse