Nordic Defence cooperation: Background, current trends and future prospects

The Nordic cooperation is clearly an upward trend in the five Nordic states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Recently, its added value has been highlighted in particular in the field of foreign policy. The setbacks in the Icelandic (2008) and Finnish (2012) campaigns for the UN Security Council and the Swedish campaign for the UN Human Rights Council (2012) have underlined this rationale. The Nordic states are increasingly preoccupied with the possible decline of their relatively high international standing (and arguably also influence) at the face of the emerging multipolar world order. Relatedly, the high hopes vested in the EU as a channel for global influence in Nordic EU capitals have not fully materialised. The Nordic cooperation is also progressively seen as an asset in the enlarged EU and NATO despite the different affiliations of the Nordic states with these institutions.

Download (PDF)