Nordic PeaceWhat accounts for the peaceful relations between the Nordic countries?The claim of the conference paper, presented together with Christopher Browning at the International Studies Association Convention in February 2009, is that limitations inherent in International Relations theory have over a long period of time prevented a full understanding why war in the relations between the Nordic countries have for almost two centuries been a forlorn option. Only recently, with the stability and safety of identity being viewed separately from the more physical aspects of security (security-as-violence) has it become possible to account for Nordic peace. It is, moreover, argued that Nordic peace is not premised along the lines of the EU on efforts of de-securitization. It rest, instead, on silencing in the sense of the security argument being left aside from the very beginning. The paper also discusses what the accounting for Nordic peace means in the context of transnational space, such as the European or the transatlantic one, more generally. Pertti Joenniemi |
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