Nordic security cooperation has better prospects than it has had for a long time

Nordic cooperation has traditionally suffered from a lack of convergence in the security policies of the Nordic countries complicated above all by some countries being members of NATO and/or the EU and others standing outside of these frameworks. This new report, which has been made in cooperation between the foreign policy research institutes of the four Nordic countries of Norway (NUPI), Denmark (DIIS), Finland (FIIA) and Sweden (UI) maps the threat perceptions of the Nordic countries and analyses their preferred security partners. The report finds that on both counts the Nordic countries are now much more homogeneous than before, not least driven by a change in Sweden’s and Finland’s view of Russia and in their increased interest in closer cooperation with the US and NATO. That also means, the report argues, that Nordic cooperation itself has better prospects today than it has had for a long time.