Cecilie Hellestveit

About

Dr. Cecilie Hellestveit works on geopolitical developments and international law the intersection between war and peace. She conducts research on hybrid tools, armed conflicts/war, geopolitics, and international law, with particular focus on technological developments and the regulation of methods and means of warfare across different domains. In 2025/2026, Hellestveit is leading a research project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence on Ukraine and international law, where she maps trends in state practice and the development of customary international law related to the targeting of energy infrastructure in interstate conflict; analyzes the evolution of the law of neutrality in light of the war in Ukraine; and examines the legal basis for the seizure of frozen Russian assets held in Western financial institutions.

Cecilie Hellestveit is a lawyer and social scientist with a PhD in international law and the laws of armed conflict from the Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo (2014). She also has training in conflict and area studies from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, and has worked for many years as a researcher focusing on international law of armed conflict, war and geopolitics, and the regulation of modern methods and means of warfare. She has held research positions at, among others, PRIO in Oslo; the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights at the University of Oslo; the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS) at the University of Oslo; the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg; the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University; the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C.; and the Estonian Military Academy. She is fluent in English, French, and Spanish, and can use Russian and Arabic as working languages (as well as German and some Hebrew).

Hellestveit teaches and supervises master’s students in the “War and Society” programme at the Department of Historical Studies at NTNU, where she offers the course “The Hybrid Battlespace – Hybrid Tools in and Outside War.” She also supervises master’s students in international law and the law of armed conflict at the University of Oslo, as well as in Bergen and Tromsø. Hellestveit has been appointed as an independent international expert on the law of armed conflict in various international fora (ISMLLW in The Hague, CCW in Geneva, the OSCE Moscow Mechanism). She served for 11 years on the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (the Oil Fund) and was a member of the Ethics Committee in 2019–2020 responsible for revising the fund’s ethical guidelines. Hellestveit was also a member of the Norwegian Extremism Commission (2022–2024). She has served on REK (the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics) and as a board member in the Norwegian Immigration Appeals Board (UNE), including as a member of the Appelate Board. She was deputy chair of the board of the Norwegian Refugee Council from 2011 to 2017. Hellestveit is a regular foreign policy columnist in the weekly newspapers Morgenbladet and Dag og Tid. She has published several books on war, international law, and geopolitics. In 2026 she will publish The Key to International Law (Universitetsforlaget) and The Hybrid Battlespace (Universitetsforlaget).

Hellestveit is also a Special Adviser at the Norwegian National Human Rights Institution (NHRI), where she works on human rights, democracy, and disruptive technological developments. She is affiliated with the independent Norwegian Academy of International law (NAIL) and is a subject-matter contributor to Utsyn. Hellestveit chairs the Decorations Council of the Ministry of Defence.

Research

I conduct research on armed conflict and international law, with particular emphasis on the rules governing the use of military force and the laws of armed conflict, specifically in relation to the military application of advanced technologies.

In 2025/2026, I am leading a research project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Defence on Ukraine and international law, where she maps trends in state practice and the development of customary international law related to the targeting of energy infrastructure in interstate conflict; analyzes the evolution of the law of neutrality in light of the war in Ukraine; and examines the legal basis for the seizure of frozen Russian assets held in Western financial institutions.

R-bank

Jeg arbeider med et pilotprosjekt med en databank for statspraksis og folkerettslig regelutvikling knyttet til militær maktbruk og høyteknologi i ulike domener.

Ukraina og folkeretten

Toårig forskningsprosjekt om status for tolkning av folkerettens regler om maktbruk etter Ukraina-krigen. Det ser på retten til nøytralitet, statsansvar for aggresjon, samt lovligheten av angrep rettet mot energi-infrastruktur. Finansiert av FD.

Publications

Krigens folkerett - Norge og vår tids kriger

Bok om reglene for militær maktbruk i folkeretten. Retten til bruk av makt, regler for stridighetene, beskyttelse av krigens ofre, samt regler om våpen . 100 norske utenlandsoperasjoner blir også plassert folkerettslig. 2020, 450 sider

Pratique et droit coutumière dans le contexte des operations militaires

Publikasjon sammen md W. Heintschel von Heinegg og S. Horvat. Hovedrapport til den 18 internasjonale kongressen for militærjurister i 2009, Tunisia, om regler for stridighetene og sedvanerett. 536 sider

Conduct of Hostilities under the International Humanitarian Law of Non-International Armed Conflict

Monografi i krigens folkerett om dannelse og tolkning av folkerettens regler for kamphandlinger i ikke-mellomstatlige væpnede konflikter. PhD avhandling forsvart ved juridisk fakultet ved Universitetet i Oslo, 2014, 389 sider

Synthetic Biology and the Categorical Ban on Biological Weapons

Kapittel om bioteknologi og utilstrekkeligheten i folkerettens reguleringer av biologiske våpen, i The Routledge Handbook of War, Law and Technology Routledge (red Dow, Dijxhoorn, Kerr & Verdirame), skrevet sammen med Filippa Lenzos, 2019, s.215-237

Accountability for Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems under International Humanitarian Law

Analyse av utfordringene når autonome våpensystemer skal benyttes I tråd med humanitærretten. Fremlagt for 130 stater i CCW i 2016. Robin Geiss (red) Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems - Technology, Definition, Ethics, Law & Security, 2017, s.135-147

2005

Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2005) Jihad-doktriner og politisk vold.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2005) Jihad - hellig krig ? Arikkel basert på foredrag under Humanioradagene ("krigens ansikter") ved UiO 2004. Pacem : militært tidsskrift for etisk og teologisk refleksjon
Popular scientific article

Journal publications

Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2006) Epilog [Kommentarartikkel i spalten 'Utenriksanalyse' om den såkalte karikaturstriden].
Feature article
Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2006) Book note: Helen Duffy - The 'war on terror' and the framework of international law (Cambridge University Press, 2005). Journal of Peace Research
Book review
Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2005) Jihad - hellig krig ? Arikkel basert på foredrag under Humanioradagene ("krigens ansikter") ved UiO 2004. Pacem : militært tidsskrift for etisk og teologisk refleksjon
Popular scientific article

Part of book/report

Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2005) Jihad-doktriner og politisk vold.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper

Teaching

Courses

Outreach

Situasjonen i Syria, og relasjonen til USA og Israel

Innslag på NRk-nyheter om det første syriske presidentbesøket til USA noen sinne, for Ahmed al-Shara, den tidligere globale terroristen og al-Nusra lederen som nå ble mottat som en statsmann i Washington. Om sanksjoner og relasjonen til USA og Israel.

Podcast Filter lyd om situasjonen i Midtøsten, våpenhvile på Gaza, Israel og Iran

Filter lyd inviterte meg til sin sikkerhetspolitiske podcast for å greie ut om sitsen i Midtøsten, Israel og Iran i starten av november 2025.

2024

Interview

Grünfeld, Nina; Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2024) Midtøsteneksperten. Podkasten Akk Oy Vey - Jødepodden Podkasten Akk Oy Vey - Jødepodden [Radio] 22.05.2024

2023

Interview

Haga, Lars Peder; Cooper, Camilla Guldahl; Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2023) Dødens regnestykke. nrk nrk [Internet] 13.11.2023

2006

Academic lecture

Hellestveit, Cecilie. (2006) Oppgjøret med Saddam Hussein. Foredrag i serien Militærjuridiskje kontaktmøter , Generaladvokatens kontor i Oslo 10.03.2006 -

Språkvelger

Cecilie Hellestveit