Prospects for the Nordic Security Pattern
| DOI | 10.1177/001083677801300301 |
| Published date | 01 November 1978 |
| Author | Nils Andrén |
| Date | 01 November 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Prospects
for
the
Nordic
Security
Pattern
NILS
ANDRÉN
National
Defence
Research
Institute,
Stockholm
Andrén,
N.
Prospects
for
the
Nordic
Security
Pattern.
Cooperation
and
Conflict,
XIII
,
1978,
181-192.
The
Nordic
countries
responded
to
the
Cold
War
division
of
Europe
in
different
ways.
The
total
effect
of
the
different
national
choices
of
position
is
a
pattern
which,
it
is
be-
lieved,
has
tended
to
reduce
acute
tensions
between
the
major
blocs
on
their
’Northern
flank’,
in
spite
of
its
increasing
significance
for
both
military
seasons,
viz.
Soviet
naval
expansion
and
superpower
nuclear
strategy,
and
for
economic
reasons,
the
new
look
on
sea resources
in
general
and
oil
in
particular.
In
the
present
paper
the
global,
European
and
Nordic
conditions
for the
Nordic
security
pattern,
often
referred
to
as
the
’Nordic
Balance’,
and
possible
effects
of future
changes
are
discussed.
1.
THE
’NORDIC
BALANCE’
The
concepts
of
’Cold
War’
and
’D6tente’
have
dominated
European
and
Atlantic
threat
and
security
perceptions
for
more
than
thirty
years.
They
have
one
very
basic
factor
in
common.
Both
assume
the
East-West
dichotomy
as
the
predominant
condition
for
European
and
global
ten-
sion
and
security.
The
idea
of
its
para-
mountcy
has
been
challenged
only
during
the
last
decade.
The
impact
of the
oil
policy
of
the
OPEC
countries
on
the
economic
well-being
of
the
industrialized
countries
has
brought
home
the
lesson
of
the
great
vulnerability
of
the
North -
and
especially
of
the
’North-West’ -
to
ac-
tions
taken
by
resource-rich
countries
in
the
South.
For
the
immediate
security
of
the
Nordic
countries,
however,
the
East-
West
polarization
still
remains
the
crucial
problem.
In
a
sense
the
Nordic
countries
have
responded
to
this
situation
by
the
emergence
of
a
set
of
national
security
policies
which
together
constitute
what
is
often
referred
to
as
the
’Nordic
Balance’.
This
’Nordic
Balance’
is
a
concept
which
has
attracted
considerable
aca-
demic
attention,
especially
during
the
second
half
of
the
1960’s.
It
became
for
a
short
time
a
key
concept
in
theoretical
discussions
on
the
characteristics
and
possibilities
of
the
’pattern’
of
different
international
roles,
selected
individually
by
the
Nordic
countries
in
order
to
pro-
mote
their
national
security.
The
term
still
remains
in
current
use,
though
norm-
ally
only
as
a
description
of
the
Nordic
security
pattern
prevailing
since
1948-49.
It
is
often
assumed
that
this
pattern
in
fact
constitutes
a
’system’
which,
within
certain
limits,
may
be
able
to
respond
to
challenges
in
a
manner
which
can
con-
tribute
to
preserving
the
power-balance
in
Northern
Europe.
The
purpose
of
the
present
paper
is
not
to
revive
the
conceptual
discussion
on
the
’Nordic
Balance’.’
It
is
in
the
first
place
to
focus
on
the
conditions
for
the
existing
Nordic
security
pattern
and
on
the
actual
and
potential
strains
to
which
it
is
sub-
jected
or
may
be
exposed.
II.
CHARACTERISTICS
OF
THE
NORDIC
SECURITY
PATTERN
A
fundamental
feature
of
the
well-estab-
lished
and
well-known
characteristics
of
the
Nordic
security
pattern
has
always
been
the
antagonism
between
the
super-
powers
and
military
blocs
in
Europe.
The
pattern
emerged
as
a
result
of
the
dif-
ferent
strategic
choices
made
by
the
Nordic
countries
between
these
blocs.
The
basic
features
include
the
NATO
membership
of
Denmark,
Norway
and
Iceland,2
of
whom
Denmark
and
Norway
have
neither
nuclear
weapons
nor
allied
troops
on
their
territories
in
peace-time,
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