Towards Nordic peace: a small state approach

Abstract

Five of the eight member states of the Arctic Council are typically defined as small: The Kingdom of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The focus of this article is on Nordic cooperation, its historical context and regards to present and future tasks and challenges. The Nordics hold a different position in the Arctic as two of them – The Kingdom of Denmark and Norway are Arctic coastal states like Canada, Russia and the USA, and, thus, belong to the Arctic five, whereas Finland, Iceland and Sweden do not. To explore the possibilities the Nordics have to influence the security development, security is divided in to categories: hard and soft. The main conclusions are that the Nordics are more likely to find a common ground for cooperation in soft security, where the issues of sovereignty and military matters are less likely to create complications.