Nik. Brandal

Nik. Brandal is Associate Professor specializing in political radicalization and violence, First World War studies, genocide studies, social democracy and the Nordic Model.

He joined Oslo New University College in 2015 as a part-time lecturer, moving to Volda University College in 2017–18 before returning to ONH as Associate Professor in 2018. Prior to this, he was a PhD-scholar at the University of Oslo (2009–2012), where he also worked as coordinator for the Forum for Contemporary History (FOSAM) (2007–2008) and Network for the Study of Totalitarianism and Democracy (NEST) (2012–). In 2014–15 he was adviser for historical research at the government-appointed Tater/Romani Committee, examining Norwegian policies and measures toward Tater/Romani people from the 1800s to the present. He served as department head of research at ISIR 2022-2024.

Ongoing research

Having recently completed a comparative study of social democratic parties in European cities (Social Democracy & Urban Politics: Party Responses to the Diversifying Left in European Cities, Manchester University Press, 2025, ed. w/ Ø. Bratberg) and a new history of the Norwegian labour movement (Solidaritet i en ny tid: Arbeiderbevegelsens historie 2000–2025, Res Publica, 2025), Brandal is now leading a follow-up project, Parties and Social Movements on the European Left, together with Øivind Bratberg (University of Oslo). He also continues his long-running research, with Eirik Brazier (Norwegian Military Academy) and Ola Teige, on intelligence and counterintelligence in Scandinavia during the First World War and is finishing a textbook on genocide and political violence with Dag Einar Thorsen.

Select publications

• Social Democracy & Urban Politics: Party Responses to the Diversifying Left in European Cities (Manchester University Press, 2025, ed. w/ Ø. Bratberg)
• 'Introduction: The Urban Dilemmas of the European Left', in Social Democracy & Urban Politics (Manchester University Press, 2025, w/ Ø. Bratberg)
• 'Conclusion', in Social Democracy & Urban Politics (Manchester University Press, 2025, w/ Ø. Bratberg)
• Solidaritet i en ny tid: Arbeiderbevegelsens historie 2000–2025 [Solidarity in a New Era: A History of the Labour Movement, 2000–2025] (Res Publica, 2025)
• 'Norge som propagandaslagmark: Britisk og tysk påvirkningsarbeid under Første verdenskrig' [Norway as a Propaganda Battleground] (Mediehistorisk tidsskrift, 2024, w/ E. Brazier)
• ''Under Such Extraordinary Circumstances': The Norwegian State's Attempt at Defining and Controlling Refugees and Migrants during the First World War' (Routledge, 2024, w/ E. Brazier, in Ruszała, ed., Refugees and Population Transfer Management in Europe, 1914–1920s)
• Fra Barks til Quisling: Festskrift til Øystein Sørensen (Dreyer, 2024, ed. w/ B.A. Steine & M.N. Ottosen)
• 'Interessenes kraft' [The Power of Interests], in Fra Barks til Quisling (Dreyer, 2024, w/ B.A. Steine & M.N. Ottosen)
• 'Forskningsbyråkratiet og rettsoppgjøret' [The Research Bureaucracy and the Post-War Legal Purge], in Fra Barks til Quisling (Dreyer, 2024)
• 'Norway', in Encyclopedia of Transitional Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2023, eds. Stan & Nedelsky)
• 'A Transatlantic Connector: Bjarne Braatøy in the Intersections of Intelligence and Social Democracy, 1923–1957' (Bloomsbury, 2023, w/ E.W. Sundvall, in di Donato & Fulla, eds., Leftist Internationalisms: A Transnational Political History)
• 'Securing the State: The First World War and the Birth of the Modern Surveillance State in Scandinavia' (Routledge, 2022, w/ E. Brazier & O. Teige, in Marklund & Skouvig, eds., Histories of Surveillance from Antiquity to the Digital Era)
• Politisk vold: Former og årsaker [Political Violence: Forms and Causes] (Dreyer, 2021, ed. w/ Ø. Sørensen & B. Hagtvet)
• 'Valg eller nødvendighet? Voldens rolle i venstreekstreme partier og bevegelser' [Choice or Necessity? The Role of Violence in Left-Wing Extremist Parties and Movements], in Politisk vold: Ekstremisme eller strategi? (Dreyer, 2021, w/ D.E. Thorsen)
• Social Democracy in the 21st Century, special issue of Comparative Social Research (Emerald Insight, 2021, ed. w/ Ø. Bratberg & D.E. Thorsen)
• 'Third Way Departures and 21st-Century Social Democracy: Corbyn vs. Macron', in Social Democracy in the 21st Century (Emerald Insight, 2021, w/ Ø. Bratberg)
• 'Intelligence and Espionage (Norway)', in 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War (Freie Universität Berlin, 2020, w/ O. Teige)
• 'Between Communitarianism and Individualism: The Nordic Way of Doing Politics', in Sustainable Modernity: The Nordic Model and Beyond (Routledge, 2018, w/ D.E. Thorsen)
• Det norske demokratiet og dets fiender 1918–2018 [Norwegian Democracy and Its Enemies] (Dreyer, 2018, w/ Ø. Sørensen)
• Nasjonale minoriteter og urfolk i norsk politikk fra 1900 til 2016 [National Minorities and Indigenous People in Norwegian Politics, 1900–2016] (Cappelen Akademisk, 2017, ed. w/ I.T. Plesner & C.A. Døving)
• 'Den fremmede og staten' [The Stranger and the State], in Nasjonale minoriteter og urfolk i norsk politikk fra 1900 til 2016 (Cappelen Akademisk, 2017, w/ E. Brazier)
• Islamisme: Ideologi og trussel [Islamism: Ideology and Threat] (Dreyer, 2016, ed. w/ Ø. Sørensen & B. Hagtvet)
• 'Small-State Scandinavia: Social Investment or Social Democracy?', in Small States in the Modern World: Vulnerabilities and Opportunities (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015, w/ Ø. Bratberg, eds. Baldersheim & Keating)
• 'Cousins Divided? Path Dependence and Political Kinship between Scotland and Norway', in Northern Neighbours: Scotland and Norway since the Middle Ages (Edinburgh University Press, 2015, w/ Ø. Bratberg, eds. Bryden et al.)
• The Nordic Model of Social Democracy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, w/ Ø. Bratberg & D.E. Thorsen)