The Role of Like-Minded Countries in the North-South Contradiction: The Case of Norway's Policy towards a NIEO

Abstract

Løvbræk, A. & Ofstad, A. The Role of Like-Minded Countries in the North-South Contradic tion : The Case of Norway's Policy towards a NIEO. Cooperation and Conflict, XIV, 1979, 121-132. The concept of 'like-mindedness' is seen as identifying a bridge-building position between developing countries and 'hardline' industrialized countries on NIEO issues. Like-minded ness is theoretically identified as a strategy for international social democratic reformism which recognizes that important changes are needed in international economic relations to regulate the operations of the market forces and prevent a collapse of the total system. Three factors are discussed to explain why Norway has taken a like-minded position: the predomi nance of social democratic ideology in Norwegian foreign policy, the absence of economic crisis at the time when the position was elaborated, and the low level of Norwegian economic expansion into the Third World. Lastly, the article discusses how the contradiction between support for NIEO principles and economic self-interests impose constraints on Norway's like-minded position when the NIEO negotiations and the political and economic environment in which they are undertaken undergo important changes.