Karl GustafssonProfessor
About me
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 International Studies Quarterly, Contemporary Security Policy, European Journal of International Relations, International Politics, International Relations, 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.) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Peace and Conflict Studies (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