Abstract

Nordic governments frequently broadcast their ambition to do more together on the international stage. The five Nordic states (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway) also share many basic goals as foreign policy actors, including a steadfast and vocal commitment to safeguarding the ‘rules-based international order.’ Why then, do we not see more organized Nordic foreign policy collaboration, for example in the form of a joint ‘grand strategy’ on core foreign policy issues, or in relation to great powers and international organizations? In this article, we draw on Charles Tilly’s concept of ‘repertoires’ to address the discrepancy between ambitions and developments in Nordic foreign policy cooperation, highlighting how the bundles of policy instruments—repertoires—that each Nordic state has developed over time take on an identity-defining quality. We argue that the Nordic states have invested in and become attached to their foreign policy differences, niches, and ‘brands.’ On the international scene, and especially when interacting with significant other states, they tend not only to stick to what they know how to do and are accustomed to doing but also to promote their national rather than their Nordic profile. While Nordic cooperation forms part of all the five states’ foreign policy repertoire in specific policy areas, these are marginal compared to the distinctive repertoires on which each Nordic state rely in relation to more powerful states. It is therefore unlikely that we will see a ‘common order’ among the Nordic states in the foreign policy domain in the near future.

Highlights

  • Nordic government representatives frequently broadcast their ambition to do more together on the international stage

  • While some areas of intra-Nordic foreign policy cooperation, for example, regional defence, have moved in the direction of more formalised cooperation and ‘deeper’ integration, other areas, such as the Nordics’ overarching approaches to the EU, continue to be marked by ‘differentiation.’ when it comes to relations with the US, Russia, and China, and on joint responses to global challenges, we find that despite bold ambitions, these remain characterised by separate political goals and actions (‘disintegration’)

  • Following Tilly (1979), we have argued here that structural constraints, along with self-perceptions, resources, and established routines, are constitutive of the individual Nordic states’ foreign policy repertoire: What these states can do, what they know how to do, and what others expect them to do in the international political arena

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Summary

Introduction

Nordic government representatives frequently broadcast their ambition to do more together on the international stage. Politics and Governance, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 110–119 important,’ and around two-thirds would like to see increased cooperation (Andreasson & Stende, 2017) This presents us with a puzzle: Despite government ambitions and widespread public support, Nordic foreign policy cooperation in the international domain remains modest. Each Nordic state seeks individual recognition and assistance from significant others, when a collective Nordic approach may have given them a stronger voice and platform We suggest that this is because the structural conditions of the Nordic states: Being small-to-medium powers dependent on positioning themselves in relation to more influential players, they have developed niche strategies to signal their own distinctiveness, vis-à-vis one another. We conclude that due to the robustness of distinct national foreign policy repertoires, overarching Nordic foreign policy coordination is likely to remain ad hoc and case-by-case oriented in the foreseeable future

The Literature on Nordic Foreign Policy Cooperation
Layered Foreign Policy Repertoires
The Individual Foreign Policy Repertoires of the Nordic States
A Joint Nordic Foreign Policy Repertoire?
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
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