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doi: 10.1177/0010836707073474pmid: N/A
The ‘Nordic model’ is often seen to exist in political economy,where, according to many commentators, the main components of the model have beenthe universal welfare state, centralized wage-bargaining structures and high levelof taxation. However, the argument in this article is that the ‘Nordicmodel’ should be seen as a broader concept, ranging from social andeconomic policy to foreign and security policy. In addition, the central claim hereis that the socio-political history of that model is crucially important inproviding understanding of the linkages in ideational inspiration across thesedifferent policy sectors. The ‘Nordic normative legacy’ and theexperience of nation- and state-building and construction of national identity wereimportant in the construction of the welfare state. However, the ‘Nordicmodel’ was traditionally based on a form of ‘welfare statenationalism’ that is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in the‘global age’. The main problem comes from confronting thechallenges of multiculturalism. It is one of the central arguments here that thedecline of Nordic internationalism and the ‘crisis’ of thewelfare state are inherently linked. The ‘Nordic model’ is notwell equipped to deal with the blurring of the boundaries between internal andexternal—domestic and foreign. However, as Nordicity and its socialfoundations are still largely intact, the task now is to rejuvenate the‘Nordic model’ and move away from welfare state nationalismtowards a more inclusive concept of welfare state internationalism.
doi: 10.1177/0010836707073475pmid: N/A
This article introduces the idea of brands to debates about Nordic models andidentity. Understanding brands to be more strategic and stable than identities, thearticle shows how a Nordic brand was marketed during the Cold War, but has sincebeen challenged and undermined by a number of pressures. Central to the Nordic brandhave been ideas of Nordic ‘exceptionalism’—of theNordics as being different from or better than the norm—and of the Nordicexperience, norms and values as a model to be copied by others. In the post-Cold Warperiod, key aspects of the Nordic brand have been challenged. On the one hand,elements of the Nordic elite appear to have forsaken the brand. On the other,broader recognition of a distinct Nordic brand is being undermined with the meldingof Nordic with European practices and processes. The article concludes by askingwhether the decline of the Nordic brand matters and further explores the linkbetween Nordicity as a brand and as an identity.
doi: 10.1177/0010836707073476pmid: N/A
The emergence of the modern state and the European states system limned the inside ofa state different from its outside. Inside the state, peace and progress could befurthered by means of disciplinary power, while outside the state, anarchy reigned.Academic disciplines such as political theory, International Relations andInternational History treat this divide as foundational, and so the knowledge theyproduce contributes to its reproduction. The article traces the emergence of thedivide where Norway and Denmark are concerned through a reading of the concept of‘realm’ (rike), and asks when Norway evolved a foreignpolicy (as distinct from a non-discriminating foreign/domestic one). There are twoextant views. A legal view starts from sovereignty and fixes the date at 1905,whereas a nationalistic view popular with historians treats it as originary to thepolitical entity of Norway, which means that it may be dated back some thousandyears or so. Treating discriminating institutions such as foreign ministries aspreconditions for the existence of a permanent divide between inside and outside,the article suggests the end of the eighteenth century. One may speculate that thefirming of the divide is related to the rise of nationalism, in which case it is notsurprising that the two phenomena fade concurrently. Since Nordic cooperation stoodout as a special phenomenon in international relations because of the particular wayin which it handled the domestic/foreign divide, Nordic cooperation will lose itsrole as special in the degree to which the domestic/foreign divide becomes less foundational.
doi: 10.1177/0010836707073477pmid: N/A
Sweden’s self-narrative is that of an outward-looking internationaliststate whose commitments to justice and equality are not confined to co-nationals.What distinguishes Swedish internationalism, apart from being social democraticallyinspired, is that it rests on a thin conception of cosmopolitan duty that does notexclusively privilege the rights of Swedish nationals alone, but recognizes the needto extend social and political rights to non-nationals as well. Key here is theuniversality principle of the Nordic welfare model, which inspires policies that donot tend to discriminate on the basis of class or ethnic background. What is more,this way of thinking has not generally been confined to the domestic level, but canbe traced through to Sweden’s (and the other Nordic states’)distinctive foreign policy traditions. This article examines the inter-connectionbetween domestic and international welfare commitments in the Swedish context. Thekey thesis developed here is that states that promote the values of solidarity,inclusiveness and universal welfare at the national level are also more likely to doso beyond borders. The article deconstructs the endogenously framed ideationalfactors that underpin Swedish internationalism, with particular focus on socialdemocracy in the process. It also investigates the co-constitutive relationshipbetween Sweden’s domestic and international welfare commitments byexploring contemporary discourses and practices that make up a significant part ofSweden’s self-identity. Finally, it analyses the normative relevance of asocial democratically inspired Swedish internationalism for the future of Nordicinternationalism more generally.
doi: 10.1177/0010836707073478pmid: N/A
With domestic political cultures in which the values of solidarity, equity and socialjustice figure large and a long history of internationalism in foreign policy, theNordic states offer themselves as prototypical ‘good internationalcitizens’. Danish foreign policy long had a passive quality to it,nonetheless it has been broadly consistent with the Nordic internationalisttradition, especially with the adoption of ‘activeinternationalism’ after 1989. Since the 2001 Election of the first FoghRasmussen government, however, the ethico-political rationales underpinning Danishinternationalism appear to be changing at the same time as Denmark has enacted acontroversially much more restrictive and, critics argue, strongly culturally framedimmigration and refugee policy. Although the Fogh Rasmussen governments have notabandoned internationalism, and key aspects of current Danish foreign policyresonate fully with the Nordic internationalist tradition, Denmark is now much moreclosely aligned with the US and the muscular internationalism that it promotes. Itmay now be the case that a normatively re-jigged internationalism helps tolegitimate an overtly exclusionary Danish national narrative. Since the‘cartoon crisis’, however, there are signs of a greatersensitivity to cultural politics in Danish foreign policy, but it remains mootwhether this will flow through into the government’s handling of therelationship between the peoples that comprise contemporary Denmark.
doi: 10.1177/0010836707073479pmid: N/A
Several new ways of security-speak are about to enter the European scene. The articleseeks to identity these by investigating the use and unfolding of the securityargument in the context of the European Union’s (EU) new security doctrineand the devising of an explicit neighbourhood policy. In addition to tracing the waythe plot structure underpinning the EU is changing, alternative options are soughtby tapping into the potential offered by the way security works in the case of theNordic constellation. Juxtaposing of the EU and the Nordic entity is also there inorder to challenge the increasingly closed and non-negotiable European configurationand to open it up for critical scrutiny.
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