Danish Defence Research Articles

Using Markunsen’s Typology as a Starting Point to Examine the Case of the Center for Defense Space and Security Cluster: The State-Anchor Type of Cluster

Defense is a strategic sector that is closely tied to national security and sovereignty. As such, governments tend to have a strong interest in supporting and developing the defense industry in their countries. This paper aims to investigate and identify to which of the four types of industrial clusters described by Markusen, the Danish Defence Space and Security (CenSec) cluster belongs to. Our initial argument is that CenSec has the characteristics of a state-anchor cluster, because in the defense cluster, the role of government is typically decisive due to the nature of the industry. The analysis will also explore the implications of the type of cluster for policymakers and industry stakeholders in terms of promoting innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth in a broader correlation with the European business and institutional ecosystem.

Unwinding the Intelligence Cycle in Denmark

The intelligence cycle has been the standard model for intelligence processes and national intelligence doctrines in the United States and Europe. However, at the same time, it is seen as theoretical flotsam from the Cold War. This study explores the cycle’s application in the Danish Defence Intelligence Services Middle East analytical department. It is a single-site explorative case study of the Middle Eastern analytic department using multiple sources in the form of formal descriptions, organograms, and qualitative interviews with intelligence and government officials to explore and compare the manifest and assumed organization. The study concludes that the cycle is merely a metaphor for a New Public Management framework in use in the Danish Defence Intelligence Service and across the Danish central administration. This framework is used for setting the annual intelligence requirements. This study is an argument for a closer look at the impact of New Public Management on European intelligence organizations.

Veteran Transition from Military to Civilian Life: Towards a Sociocultural Framework for Social Support

The transition period for reintegrating into the civilian environment can be challenging, posing unique challenges of socialisation and cultural adaptation for young Danish veterans. However, young Danish veterans have not yet been targeted by social support that handles them as a distinct category of veterans. Therefore, this article analyses a widely used Danish framework for social support, the Battlemind-Homemind framework. The article discusses how the framework supports the challenges of young Danish veterans, in order to identify support needs. The framework is found to hold limitations for providing social support in relation to young Danish veterans’ distinct challenges. A case is made for an alternative choice of sociocultural frameworks, specifically transformative learning theory, to understand and support socialisation and cultural adaptation challenges. Transformative learning theory is used to explore social challenges in young Danish veterans’ narratives on transition. The analysis reveals how veterans attempt to deal with social challenges, and how their attempts are limited by three elements: (1) Norms that suggest that people in authority define the culture of environments. (2) A veteran perception that different norms constitute an unstructured environment. (3) Aggression control as a veteran behaviour that limits cultural adaptation. Based on these analyses, social support recommendations to the Danish Defence are provided within three themes: (1) Recognise young Danish veterans as a group facing distinctive challenges. (2) Consider sociocultural frameworks for the conceptual foundations of social support. (3) Increase awareness of challenges in education environments.

Danish Defense Transformation and the Technopolitics of Relevant Military Contributions

This article shows how the transformation of the Danish Defence, initiated with the defense agreement of 2004, was impacted by socio-technological change. The article takes as its theoretical starting point the concepts of security and military imaginaries and the study of (military) technopolitics. It argues that the Danish military transformation was a product of the Danish foreign policy ambition of being viewed as a trustworthy and relevant ally – especially by the United States. This ambition meant that Denmark had to make relevant military contributions to the period’s U.S.- and NATO-led international operations. Therefore, the perception of what constituted relevant military contributions came to shape the Danish military transformation. In this process the period’s large-scale socio-technological changes, fueled by unprecedented information and communication technological development, played a central role in (re-)shaping both U.S. and Danish security and military imaginaries. This through technopolitical narratives of the information age, (the dark sides of) globalization, and the Revolution in Military Affairs which (in)directly impacted the broader Danish understanding and concrete practice (i.e. policy) in regard to military transformation in connection with the 2004 defense agreement. Finally, for Denmark, the technopolitical conflicts emerging around the schism of having to transform in order to be viewed as a trustworthy ally capable of making relevant military contributions and the large-scale economic and organizational investments required by the transformation led Denmark to formulate its own technopolitical strategy or narrative. This in the shape of Network-Based Operations framed as a specific Danish pragmatic and down-to-earth approach to transformation.

Industry, War and Stalin’s Battle for Resources: The Arctic and the Environment

Niels Bo Poulsen, director of the Department of Military History and War Studies at the Royal Danish Defence College, reviews Industry, War and Stalin’s Battle for Resources: The Arctic and the Environment by Lars Rowe.

The im-/possibility of hybrid inclusion: Disrupting the ‘happy inclusion’ story with the case of the Greenlandic Police Force

The notion of uniqueness, as articulated at the centre of most organisational inclusion literature, is inextricably tied to Western-centric idea(l)s of the autonomous, individual and self-sufficient subject, stripped of historical inequalities and relational embeddedness. Following a critical inclusion agenda and seeking alternatives to this predominant view, we apply a Bhabhaian postcolonial lens to the ethnographic study of organisational efforts to include indigenous Kalaallit people in the Greenlandic Police Force. Greenland has home rule, but is still part of the Kingdom of Denmark and is subject to Danish defence policy and the police force. With Bhabha’s notion of mimicry, we explore how police officers, through performing ‘Danish’ (Western) culture and professionalism, both confirm and resist colonial stereotypes and even open up pathways towards hybridity. Building on the officers’ experiences, we introduce the term ‘hybrid inclusion’ by which we emphasise two interrelated dimensions necessary for advancing critical inclusion studies: first, a certain understanding of the to-be-included subject as fluid, emergent and thus ontologically singular but at the same time relationally embedded in a collective colonial past and present; second, organisational practices for inclusivity that address and work with the actual impossibility of a ‘happy inclusion story’, free of contradictions and conflicts.

Liability in Joint Military Operations—The Green Desert Case

Abstract Almost all international military operations today are joint military operations where several states collaborate to carry out concrete operations, such as combat or arrest operations. This raises pertinent and difficult questions in relation to state responsibility if international law obligations are breached during the operation, not least: Which state or states are responsible? In June 2018, a Danish High Court found Denmark responsible in its complicity for Iraqi ill-treatment of 18 Iraqis who were detained by the Iraqi military in a joint Danish–Iraqi military operation in Iraq in November 2004. Danish soldiers did not exercise control over the Iraqi troops; the detainees were not captured by Danish soldiers or at any time subject to their control or jurisdiction; and Danish forces did not participate in or witness any ill-treatment during the operation. Nevertheless, the Danish High Court found that the Danish defence forces were liable to pay compensation to the 18 Iraqi detainees because Danish defence forces ‘should have known’ that there was a real risk of Iraqi ill-treatment of detainees and paid to little attention to the risk when planning and participating in the operation. The article discusses the Danish High Court judgment. Is it a problem that the High Court decided the case on the basis of Danish compensation law and largely ignores international law standards? And would the Danish defence forces have been responsible if assessed on the basis of State responsibility standards in international law?

The European Defence Union and Denmark’s Defence Opt-out: A Legal Appraisal

When Denmark failed to ratify the Treaty of Maastricht in 1992, the heads of state and government meeting within the European Council concluded the Edinburgh Decision that established a number of opt-outs for Denmark, so it could subsequently ratify the treaty. One of these opt-outs was in regard to EU defence matters. Nearly three decades on, the Union is now seeing concrete steps being made across the treaties to deliver on a true European Defence Union. Given these developments, the Danish defence opt-out is coming under increased scrutiny. This article analyses the law, policy, and practice of the Danish defence opt-out contained in Article 5 of Protocol (No 22) on the position of Denmark annexed to the EU treaties, in light of the litany of initiatives that now make up the contemporary European Defence Union. Notably, these developments underscore and rationalize the basis of the EU’s internal market for deeper European integration. Moreover, with only one Member State possessing such opt-out, it is arguably detrimental to overall EU defence interests. This article contends that the time has come for Denmark to forgo its defence opt-out – a legacy of the past – and participate in the complete range of initiatives contributing to these new endeavours that form the contemporary European Defence Union. Denmark, Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP, Opt-out, EU law, Union law, Protocols, Security Law, European Defence Union.

Anarchistic action. Social organization and dynamics in southern Scandinavia from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages

AbstractA general interest in centralized institutions, state formation and prestige objects has dominated research on social organization and dynamics in Scandinavia from the Late Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Accordingly, a focus on kingly power, aristocratic influence, hierarchies and warrior might has dominated archaeological research designs for the last forty years. Subsequently, other perspectives have been evaded and their significance has been diminished. In this article, I use anarchistic principles as an analytic perspective and present examples of anarchistic actions – network organization, justified leaders and decentralization – drawing on well-known but ambiguous phenomena such as thing sites, the southern Danish defence system Danevirke, and migration and mobility. I suggest a perspective that recognizes resistance, authority and decentralization as well as centralization and institutionalization, allowing a broad spectrum of social engagement and interrelations to influence social organization. I will argue that human intentionality has been overlooked in favour of structures and institutions, and that the power of network organization and decentralization is influential in shaping social organization and dynamics.

ICD-11 PTSD and complex PTSD in treatment-seeking Danish veterans: a latent profile analysis

ABSTRACT Background: The WHO International Classification of Diseases, 11th version (ICD-11), includes a trauma-related diagnosis of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) distinct from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results from previous studies support the validity of this distinction. However, no studies to date have evaluated the ICD-11 model of PTSD and CPTSD in treatment-seeking military veterans. Objective: To determine if the distribution of symptoms in treatment-seeking Danish veterans was consistent with the ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD symptom profiles. Based on previous studies, we hypothesized that separate classes representing PTSD and CPTSD would be found that membership of a potential CPTSD-class would be predicted by a larger number of childhood traumas, and that a potential distinction between PTSD and CPTSD would be supported by differences in sociodemographic and functional outcomes. Method: Participants (N = 1,541) were formerly deployed Danish soldiers who completed proxy measures of ICD-11 PTSD and disturbances in self-organization (DSO) symptoms, along with self-report measures of traumatic life events, prior to starting treatment at the Military Psychology Department of the Danish Defence. Results: All hypotheses were supported. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed separate classes representing PTSD and CPTSD. In comparison to the PTSD-class, membership of the CPTSD-class was predicted by more childhood traumatic experiences, and members of this class were more likely being single/divorced/widowed and more likely to use psychotropic medication. Besides a PTSD-class and a CPTSD-class, LPA revealed a Low Symptoms-class, a Moderate DSO-class, a Hyperarousal-class, and a High DSO-class, with clear differences in functional outcomes between classes. Conclusion: Findings replicate previous studies supporting the distinction between ICD-11 PTSD and CPTSD. In addition, there seem to be groups of treatment-seeking military veterans that do not fulfil full criteria for a trauma-related disorder. Further research should explore subsyndromal PTSD and CPTSD profiles in veterans and other populations.

Contested organizational change and accounting in trials of incompatibility

This paper is about the role of accounting in making decisions about contested organizational change. We study how two strategic options emerged and were valued differently in a protracted case regarding sourcing by the Danish Defence Force. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory we show how the two strategic options emerged and were pitted against each other in what Callon describes as ‘trials of strength’. The contribution of the paper is in three actions: First, it develops the concept of ‘trial of strength’ for accounting and organizational research by showing that extant literature can be enhanced with the conceptualization of a typology of trials that distinguishes between prototype trials and trials of incompatibility. Second, it shows that accounting inscriptions may play changing roles which we label ‘versatile’ when forged in the contested circumstances and resultant pressure of a trial of incompatibility. Third, it highlights how accounting inscriptions take part in (re)formulating, evaluating and advancing mutually exclusive reform options in a series of trials of strength involving both a prototype trial and trials of incompatibility. In addition to the frequency, number and intensity of the inscriptions there appears to be an increased prospect of unfaithful behavior by some inscriptions. This work also has implications for governmentality theorization and processual views of outsourcing decision making - as well as its paradoxical outcomes.

Military land use and the impact on landscape: A study of land use history on Danish Defence sites

Counting for as much as 6% of Earth’s terrestrial surface, military land use constitutes an important share of human land use. Yet, only few studies analyse the general impact of military land use on landscape and biodiversity. This article presents a countrywide study of land use, land use change and biodiversity content on all Danish defence sites larger than 10 ha, comprising roughly 40,000 ha or 1% of the Danish terrestrial area. Based on interpretation of historical maps, land use history was analysed for the period from the 1870′s to the present. Furthermore, available national data were applied to assess present land use and biodiversity content within and in the surrounding of defence sites. The historical analysis revealed six typical trajectories of land use change. In terms of total area, the two most important were conservation of open, semi-natural habitat types (47%) and change from agriculture to open, semi-natural habitat types (34%). Results also show, that for sites characterised by these two land use change trajectories, present proportions of open semi-natural habitats as well as biodiversity contents are significantly higher within the sites compared to their surroundings. It is concluded that military land use in most cases had a significant beneficial impact on present day land cover composition and biodiversity.

Krigen, kunsten og hjemsøgelsen

Ann-Katrine Schmidt Nielsen: “War, Art, and Hauntings. An analysis of haunting in Danish veteran art and literature”We might say that ‘wars haunt’ in order to designate how they resonate in, influence and shape societies, relations and individuals – even long after official peace agreements have been made. However, what exactly does this mean and how might such haunting appear in art and literature? This article investigates how contemporary remote warfare can be seen as haunting (in) Danish art and literature made by or in close collaboration with Danish war veterans. Through the analyses of the participatory pop music by Peter and the Danish Defence, the novel Mikael by Dy Plambeck, and the collection of poems Så efterlades alt flæskende by Iraq veteran Mikkel Brixvold, three hauntological modes are suggested: a political, a psychological and an affective mode, each accentuating various aspects of such haunting.

‘We don’t do that’: A constructivist perspective on the use and non-use of private military contractors by Denmark

In this article I put forward a social constructivist perspective on state use of Private Military and Security Contractors (PMSCs). I will argue that state outsourcing decisions are, to a large extent, shaped by nationally shared values, understandings and dispositions. Concretely, I first provide a detailed overview of the extent of domestic and deployed contracting by the Danish Defence and, thereafter, based on a number of semi-structured interviews, I expose the dominant understandings that shaped how PMSCs have come to be understood in Denmark. By so doing I can show that the employment of PMSCs by the Danish Defence remains comparatively limited because it is largely perceived as inappropriate and as incompatible with what it means to be ‘Danish’. Although Denmark too has to balance its international engagements with the limited resources allocated to defence (the typical functional pressures) Danish particular ‘soft’ neoliberalism and ‘hard’ commitments to IHL speak against using private actors to make that possible. This means I take in the more abstract, macro-level discussions on the end of the Cold War and the advent of neoliberalism but go beyond by asking whether, and if so how, these and other collective experiences and understandings actually (co-)shape(d) outsourcing decisions.

A bidirectional association between cognitive ability in young adulthood and epilepsy: a population-based cohort study.

To investigate the bidirectional association between cognitive ability in young adulthood and epilepsy. This cohort study included 1 159 076 men enrolled in the mandatory conscription board examination from the Danish Conscription Database (DCD; 658 465 men examined 1957-84), the Danish Defence Personnel Organization Database (DPOD; 216 509 men examined 1987-2005) and the Danish Conscription Registry (DCR; 284 102 men examined 2006-15). A supplementary analysis included 14 814 female volunteers. Cognitive ability was measured at conscription, and epilepsy was ascertained by physician diagnoses in the Danish National Patient Registries 1977-2016 [using International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes: ICD-8-345; ICD-10-G40-G41]. Differences in cognitive ability in relation to epilepsy status at the time of conscription (age 19) were calculated using linear regression. The risk of epilepsy associated with cognitive ability was estimated using Cox regression models, split at age at follow-up (40 and 60 years) and adjusted for year of birth, cerebrovascular disease, traumatic brain injury and education. In all, 5097 (1.0%) men from the DPOD and DCR were diagnosed with epilepsy before conscription, and they had about 0.25 standard deviation (SD) lower cognitive scores than men without epilepsy. The largest difference in cognition was seen for those with the largest number of hospital contacts. A total of 22 364 (1.9%) men developed epilepsy, and cognitive ability was inversely associated with the risk of epilepsy. With the end of follow-up at age 40 years, the adjusted hazard ratio (HR)per SD increase was 0.75 (95% confidence interval = 0.73-0.77). The association attenuated with increasing age at diagnosis. The findings were replicated in female conscripts. The cognitive impairment seen in adults with epilepsy seems to reflect combined effects of epileptic processes and lower premorbid cognitive ability.

Anhedonia and emotional numbing in treatment-seeking veterans: behavioural and electrophysiological responses to reward

ABSTRACTBackground: Anhedonia is a common symptom following exposure to traumatic stress and a feature of the PTSD diagnosis. In depression research, anhedonia has been linked to deficits in reward functioning, reflected in behavioural and neural responses. Such deficits following exposure to trauma, however, are not well understood.Objective: The current study aims to estimate the associations between anhedonia, PTSD symptom-clusters and behavioural and electrophysiological responses to reward.Methods: Participants (N = 61) were recruited among Danish treatment-seeking veterans at the Department of Military Psychology in the Danish Defence. Before entering treatment, participants were screened with symptom measurement instruments and participated in a joint behavioural-electrophysiological experiment. The experimental paradigm consisted of a signal-detection task aimed at assessing reward-driven learning. Simultaneous electrophysiological-recordings were analysed to evaluate neural responses upon receiving reward, as indicated by the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) component.Result: Anhedonia as conceptualized in depression correlated with behavioural learning (r = -0.28, p = .032). Neither anhedonia nor behavioural learning correlated with FRN. However, the anhedonia symptom cluster of PTSD did correlate with FRN (r = 0.29, p = .023). Extending upon this in an exploratory analysis, the specific PTSD-symptom emotional numbing was found to correlate moderately with FRN (r = 0.38, p = .003).Conclusion: The present data suggest that anhedonia in trauma-exposed individuals is related to the anticipatory aspect of reward, whereas the neural consummatory reward response seems unlinked. Interestingly, emotional numbing in the same population is related to the consummatory phase of reward, correlating with the FRN response. This suggests that anhedonia and emotional numbing in response to trauma might pertain to different phases of reward processing.

Experience Report: Constraint-Based Modelling and Simulation of Railway Emergency Response Plans

We report on experiences from a case study applying a constraint-based process-modelling and -simulation tool, dcrgraphs.net, to the modelling and rehearsal of railway emergency response plans with domain experts. The case study confirmed the approach as a viable means for domain experts to analyse and rehearse emergency response plans, through the activities of formally modelling the plan and subsequently rehearsing it by simulating that model collaboratively. In particular, the constraint-based modelling notation resulted in a flexible model giving rehearsal participants freedom to explore different ways to proceed, including ways not necessarily anticipated in the paper-based emergency response plans. The case study was undertaken as part of a short research, ProSec, project funded by the Danish Defence Agency, with the aim of applying and developing methods for collaborative mapping of emergency and security processes in the danish public transport sector and their dependency on ICT.

Håkon Lunde Saxi: Norwegian and Danish Defence Policy. A Comparative Study of the Post-Cold War Era

Håkon Lunde Saxi: Norwegian and Danish Defence Policy. A Comparative Study of the Post-Cold War Era

How Strong Is Europeanisation, Really? The Danish Defence Administration and the Opt-Out from the European Security and Defence Policy

The article questions how strong Europeanisation is as an explanation of administrative changes in EU member states. Denmark has an opt-out from the European cooperation on defence, and, therefore, its defence administration represents a critical or a less likely case to test the Europeanisation thesis. The article shows that in spite of the opt-out, the administrative structures and the policy processes in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) have adapted to the common foreign and security policy (CFSP) and the European security and defence policy (ESDP). Surprisingly, the administrative structures and the decision-making processes in the Ministry of Defence (MoD) have also adapted to the ESDP. The latter example emphasises the strength of top-down Europeanisation as a possible explanation of domestic administrative changes in member states. It is argued that Europeanisation per se is not an explanation of administrative adaptation. The pressure from Europeanisation has to be propagated by actors. In the case of the Danish defence administration, the promoter is government officials embedded in a domestic political–bureaucratic environment, which is remarkably positive towards the integration process within the EU. It explains the strategic choices of the officials, and, thereby, it explains the administrative adaptations of the MoD and the MFA.

THE COMMODIFICATION OF THE DANISH DEFENCE FORCES AND THE TROUBLED IDENTITIES OF ITS OFFICERS

The accounting literature has given much attention to the New Public Management and attempts at making the government's performances auditable while influencing the core working of the public sector. This paper contributes to this debate by demonstrating how particular accounting devices participate in the definition of the identities of the officers in the Danish Defence. It shows how the definition of the officers' identities is complex and dynamic and does not necessarily have outcomes of stability and closure. Applying Actor‐Network Theory we demonstrate how their identities are caught up in processes of continual or never ending reconfigurations. The major implication is that the occupational identity of the Danish officers is subject to attempts of being defined as ‘a manager’ in the period 1989‐2006. The paper demonstrates how accounting devices participated in defining a hybrid identity of the officers as ‘warrior’ and ‘manager’ and that officers in different spaces and times experienced problems with the hybrid identity.