Selected European foreign policies, including Danish foreign policy: the shadows of the past and the future‘The shadow of the future’Globalisation and diplomacy: Globalisation, not least the expectations of it, is increasingly working as a parameter for the foreign-policy decision-making process and decision implementations at the national level (the shadow of the future). The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sponsored a report on ‘Diplomacy in a boundless world’ (2006) with recommendations concerning its own adaptation to the consequences of globalisation. As part of this topic we analyze, in a comparative Nordic perspective, how this adaptation is being carried out in practice. During the ‘cartoons crisis’ of 2005-2006, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was put on a difficult test in ‘public diplomacy’, involving more far-reaching domestic and foreign communication than has been the case in traditional diplomacy. The geopolitical struggle over the pipelines and energy supplies for the future; Danish and Greenlandic energy resources in a national and international perspective. The EU members disagree on where to find the future supplies of especially natural gas. Here we focus at the challenges and incentives of the policies of both the suppliers and the buyers, and where interests and positions can meet. The potential of the Arctic area is closely followed. The ‘shadow of the past’: On the interaction in the decision-making process between contemporary and past geopolitical challenges Contemporary foreign policy decisions are often justified with reference to ‘lessons’ from past wars and conflicts. This applies not least to current Europe, where the absence of clear and immediate threats has given a greater role to lessons which the populations and decision-makers have drawn from history. The anti-German and anti-Russian foreign policy of the Polish Kaczynski-twins and the Russian-Estonian statue-crisis in the spring of 2007 can serve as obvious examples. Involvement of lessons of the past often entails a significant conflict potential in relations between states. Against this background we address two questions: How are foreign policies created by the interaction between past and present geopolitics? Why are the foreign policies of some states more influenced by the lessons of the past than others? The project formulates a general foreign political theory and tests it vis à vis: 1) the positionings of six European countries in relation to the assertive Russian foreign policy during Putin; 2) The positionings of six European states in relation to Atlantic disagreements (atlanticists vs. continentalists); and 3) Danish foreign policy action space in a historical comparative perspective: during the Cold War, after the Cold War and after the cartoons crisis 2005-06. |
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