Petra Mathilde Jørs

Petra Jørs is a PhD candidate in Foreign Policy and Diplomacy at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Her primary research interest lies in international relations, paradiplomacy, foreign and security policy, with a specific focus on the North Atlantic region. In particular, she examines how the Faroe Islands, a non-sovereign microstate, act and navigate in a world where most areas have been securitized.

Jørs' PhD project, "From Geostrategic Pawn to Geopolitical Actor," explores the Faroe Islands' role as an international actor under its own flag. Over the past few decades, the Faroe Islands have increasingly entered the international scene through bilateral trade and fisheries agreements with other countries, as well as diplomatic representations across the globe. The Faroe Islands function simultaneously as an international state actor with an active paradiplomacy while remaining a member of the Danish Realm, with Denmark being the de jure authority responsible for foreign and security policy.

Through empirical studies of the Faroe Islands' foreign and security policy activities, the project aims to enhance the understanding of the Faroes' de facto role as an international actor and, in a broader context, contribute to the understanding of non-sovereign microstates within the international system.