‘What's the Use of It?’: Danish Strategic Culture and the Utility of Armed Force

Abstract

The article uses theories of strategic culture to show why Denmark has come to regard the use of armed force in new ways following the end of the Cold War. It is argued that Danish strategic culture is constituted by a debate between ‘cosmopolitans’ and ‘defencists’ about the utility of armed force. The debate shows that a minor power possesses a certain ability to choose how to act on the world stage, and what means to use in doing so, and illustrates that the prevalent structural explanations of why Danish foreign policy has been ‘militarized’ since the end of the Cold War are insufficient. In Denmark, a new focus on European integration and globalization has meant that military power is being understood in a new way. A practice of ‘activism’ has transcended the cosmopolitan–defencist debate that paralysed Danish security discourse in the late 1970s and 1980s.