Case study 1: Nordic cooperation in the context of European integration

Abstract

The chapter suggests that the great strength of Nordic subregionalism is the popular support it enjoys. During the cold war the Nordic narrative was paradoxically a narrative that suggested that the Nordic region’s main mission was about ‘non-cooperation’. The high levels of trust between the Nordic countries was making this a low-tension area during the cold war. The condition, however, was that the countries applied different alignment strategies in relation to the competing world powers and thus refrained from closer cooperation in sensitive areas. Since the end of the cold war a new narrative has emerged; a narrative that emphasizes Nordic actorness and the cruciality of Nordic norms. These norms are coherent over time and the most crucial of them is a ‘peace’ norm. The Nordic Council has even suggested that peace should be the trademark of the region.