Åse Gilje Østensen new Associate Professor II at Department of Comparative Politics

Østensen received her education in comparative politics at the University of Bergen, where she completed her PhD studies with the dissertation “The Political Agency of Private Military and Security Companies: Governors in the Making” in the spring of 2013. Østensen’s research is located at the intersections of the civil and military domains and the public and private spheres. She has studied the commercialization of security and in particular so-called private security and military companies. Østensen’s dissertation addresses how this industry has influenced security decisions in its capacity as multi-level security experts. She has previously studied how such companies have been engaged by the UN.

Østensen is currently engaged as associate professor at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy in Bergen, Norway, where she teaches courses on international security politics. In the spring of 2015 Østensen will teach the 200-level course «The Commercialization of Security in Peace and Conflict» at the Department of Comparative Politics. Students will study the multifaceted marked for security and military services as well as theoretical perspectives on how security is handled nationally and internationally in the context of the increasing commercialization of the sector. She will join the research group Challenges in Advanced Democracies.