Nordic Security and Defence Cooperation: Differentiated Integration in Uncertain Times
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Politics and Governance (ISSN: 2183–2463) 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 100–109 DOI: 10.17645/pag.v8i4.3338 Article Nordic Security and Defence Cooperation: Differentiated Integration in Uncertain Times Rikard Bengtsson Department of Political Science, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden; E-Mail: [email protected] Submitted: 12 June 2020 | Accepted: 28 August 2020 | Published: 3 November 2020 Abstract A decade ago, Nordic cooperation on security and defence matters gained momentum, having been largely absent from the map of Nordic cooperation during the Cold War and its aftermath. This article analyses developments along three di- mensions of Nordic cooperation: military defence (focusing on the Nordic Defence Cooperation), civil security (in the form of the ‘Haga’ process), and political cooperation (through the implementation of the Stoltenberg report). Three observa- tions stand out as a result: First, that the three dimensions are intimately related against the background of a common Nordic conceptualization of security; second, that there is simultaneously variation in significant respects (such as driving forces, scope, and degree of institutionalization); and third, that Nordic security and defence cooperation has developed in the context of European and transatlantic security dynamics and cooperation. The second part of the analysis seeks to interpret this picture from the analytical perspective of differentiated integration. The article ends with a set of reflections on the future of Nordic security and defence cooperation in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. Keywords civil security; cooperation; defence; differentiated integration; Haga process; NORDEFCO; Nordic; security; Stoltenberg Issue This article is part of the issue “Rediscovering Nordic Cooperation” edited by Anne Elizabeth Stie (University of Agder, Norway) and Jarle Trondal (University of Agder, Norway/ARENA University of Oslo, Norway). © 2020 by the author; licensee Cogitatio (Lisbon, Portugal). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribu- tion 4.0 International License (CC BY). 1. Introduction Cold War saw the formation of the Nordic Council in 1952, a permanent treaty on Nordic cooperation in 1962, The last decade has seen a surge in Nordic coopera- and the Nordic Council of Ministers, established in 1971. tion in the area of security and defence. This is all Sometimes overlooked due to its relatively weak insti- the more surprising given the absence of such cooper- tutional foundations, Nordic cooperation advanced dur- ation during the Cold War and the different security- ing the first decade of the Cold War to include things political orientations and institutional linkages of the such as a passport union (1952), a common labour mar- Nordic countries: with Norway, Denmark, and Iceland ket (1954), and a reciprocal social security arrangement being North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) mem- (1955). Later advances included a language convention bers whereas Sweden and Finland remained non-aligned, and the Nordic Investment Bank. and with Denmark, Finland, and Sweden being European Having said that, the Cold War period also contained Union (EU) members while Norway and Iceland opted for major failures of cooperation, most notably the idea of a non-membership cooperation. Indeed, Nordic coopera- Nordic single market and the Nordic Economic Community tion and integration was in many ways a success story (NORDEK); in the latter case a reflection of Denmark’s during the Cold War, with intensifying cooperation and and Norway’s decision to opt for the European Economic even integration in a number of societal fields. As ex- Community instead (although in Norway’s case, the gov- plored further below, security and defence was however ernment’s proposal to join was defeated in a referendum). not part of this process. Described by Forsberg as the Deliberately, foreign, security and defence policy co- “golden era of Nordic cooperation” (2013, p. 1163), the operation was not made part of the mandate for the Politics and Governance, 2020, Volume 8, Issue 4, Pages 100–109 100 Nordic Council as it would have made Finnish member- (NORDEFCO). Founded in 2009, NORDEFCO’s aim is to ship in the Council impossible given Finland’s special re- “strengthen the participating nations’ national defence, lationship to the Soviet Union. Moreover, following the explore common synergies and facilitate efficient com- failed negotiations for a Nordic defence alliance in 1949 mon solutions” (NORDEFCO, 2020). While the aim re- and Denmark’s, Norway’s, and Iceland’s decision to join mains the same, the motivation for Nordic defence coop- NATO, regional security and defence cooperation was eration has changed fundamentally, from economic rea- not really deemed politically feasible or of great value- sons (cost-effectiveness) to managing the Russian chal- added by anyone in the region. lenge, to security in the Baltic Sea region. How did we During the Cold War, then, Nordic defence cooper- end up here? ation was essentially limited to cooperation in the con- The end of the Cold War implied substantial changes text of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping. The Nordic to the Nordic security situation, as Sweden and Finland states, apart from Iceland, established the NORDSAMFN joined the EU and engaged in close collaboration with forum in 1963 as a group for Nordic cooperation on mil- NATO. This is reflected in examples of closer cooperation itary UN matters. This was supplemented the following among the Nordic countries in military affairs, such as year by a joint Nordic stand-by force at the UN’s disposal joint armaments projects, cooperation in NATO-led op- (NORDBERFN). In 1997, these arrangements were re- erations in Afghanistan and the Balkans, and the estab- placed by NORDCAPS (Nordic Coordinated Arrangement lishment of the Nordic Battle Group in the EU context. for Military Peace Support, later to become an inte- The process of closer collaboration can be traced gral part of today’s cooperation scheme—see further back to 2006–07 and a Swedish–Norwegian bilateral ini- Forsberg, 2013, p. 1167). Nordic cooperation in the con- tiative for cooperation (on exercises and education as text of UN peacekeeping can be understood as a way of well as on maintenance and upgrading of equipment) as balancing different security-political orientations (NATO a way to cope with the increasingly challenging economic membership and non-alignment, often referred to as ‘the situation (rapid cost development of equipment in paral- Nordic balance’) and a common small state security iden- lel to sliced defence budgets as a result of a conducive se- tity (reflected in UN-mandated international activism). curity environment). In 2008, a trilateral working group Today, the situation is fundamentally different in im- (Sweden–Finland–Norway) identified as many as 140 ar- portant respects, as cooperation in security and defence eas of potential bilateral and trilateral cooperation—40 has not only been introduced but has arguably risen to of which could have been initiated more or less im- the top of the agenda of Nordic cooperation. Still, certain mediately (Bailes & Sandö, 2014, pp. 12–13; Forsberg, structural preconditions remain, notably the different in- 2013, pp. 1167–69; Saxi, 2019, p. 663). Finland’s rea- stitutional linkages. Three inter-related dimensions make son for joining Norway and Sweden was “the very great up security and defence cooperation among the Nordic challenges facing the country’s defence economy” (Saxi, countries today: military defence cooperation, civil secu- 2019, p. 664). rity cooperation, and a political process for advancing co- In November 2008, then, the five Nordic states operation on foreign policy, security, and defence. This signed a memorandum of understanding establishing article aims to map this evolving landscape of Nordic se- NORDSUP (Nordic Supportive Defence Structures) as a curity and defence cooperation and critically examine new scheme for cooperation. A year later NORDSUP the nature and dynamics of cooperation in this sphere was combined with two other existing formats for co- utilizing scholarship on differentiated integration, com- operation (NORDAC—Nordic Armaments Cooperation plemented by the concepts of security community and and NORDCAPS—Nordic Coordinated Arrangement for stable peace. Military Peace Support) to become NORDEFCO. The idea Before exploring the different dimensions of cooper- was to “produce national military capabilities in a more ation, a note on terminology is necessary: Non-military cost-efficient way by means of multinational coopera- security and defence cooperation features under an ar- tion” (Röksund as cited in Saxi, 2019, p. 665). ray of labels in academic scholarship as well as in Nordic Hence by 2009, a pan-Nordic framework for military and European politics—civil defence, civil security, emer- cooperation was in place, driven by an economic ratio- gency preparedness/management, crisis readiness, civil nale and initiated from within the defence forces, but protection etc. For reasons of conceptual clarity, this arti- widely supported by Nordic politicians and the Nordic cle will reserve the term defence for military defence and public (according to a study by Oxford Research, re- primarily use the label civil security when discussing non- ferred in Saxi, 2019, p. 665). It is to be noted, how- military aspects of security and defence. Civil defence ever, that for a number of years it remained primar- may still