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Nordic Countries

The Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, are described as a group of small nations with democratic political institutions, a fairly homogenous population and comparatively small class and gender differences. Most international researchers have tended to see these communities as different from the rest of Europe, representing peaceful and economically successful countries where an extended welfare system includes all citizens. Nordic historians have highlighted the importance of a political tradition of negotiation, avoiding revolution and finding compromises. They see this arrangement as rooted in earlier alliances between king and peasants and/or burghers that later developed into trust in the state apparatus. The state was seen as a friend of the individual. An individual-oriented Protestantism and a long-lasting social-democratic hegemony combined to create a mentality that treasured equality and individual freedom.

This construction has given rise to a view of Nordic policies as a homogenous entity and to the idea of a special development into a Nordic model for the welfare state. The Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, have been seen as the core countries, with Finland and Iceland joining in at different moments and to different degrees. Historical research also focuses on the roots of these welfare states, seeing some municipal as well as some national policies from the late nineteenth century as precursors of later welfare state provisions.

On the other hand, recent research has questioned parts of this picture. The Social Democrats were not alone in building welfare states. The middle class and bourgeois political parties, peasants, voluntary organizations and women's organizations have played an important role. Welfare policies were often initiated at the municipal level early in the twentieth century, and local provisions were later adopted at a national level. Welfare policies have been criticized for creating new inequalities through bureaucratic clientelism and by neglecting class and gender differences, and the importance of social control, categorization and constraints accompanying welfare policies has been emphasized.

The four Nordic nations Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden have a long tradition of cooperating in Peace Support Operations (PSO). It all started back in the 1950s with the United Nations peace-keeping operations in the Middle-East and continued through the cold war with Nordic cooperation in UN and subsequently NATO operations like the SFOR/IFOR and ISAF. During the first decades of peacekeeping the Nordic cooperation was focused on training activities and coordination of UN Standby Forces, also including different UN courses and information exchange.

Following Finland’s and Sweden’s entry into the NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1994, the Nordic nations established the Nordic Armaments Cooperation (NORDAC) to coordinate development and procurement programmes. Also the coordination and cooperation in the growing number of PSOs was enhanced by establishing a Nordic Coordinated Arrangement for Military Peace Support (NORDCAPS) in 1997. NORDCAPS offered joint Nordic training for PSO, as well as coordinated Nordic contributions to capacity building and security sector reform. In 2003 Iceland became a member of NORDCAPS.

To further develop the Nordic defence cooperation a MoU was signed in November 2009 between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden establishing the Nordic Defence Cooperation (NORDEFCO) as a truly Nordic cooperation. The establishment of NORDEFCO created a common institutional structure out of the previous Nordic defence cooperation arrangements NORDAC, NORDCAPS and NORDSUP.