The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

152 NATIONAL DEFENCE AND EUROPEAN COOPERATIONBalance and Counter-power Attained externallyCreated internallyFigure 8.1. The Nordic security dynamicessay covering a number of books on the situation in Norway and the otherNordic countries he uses the terms ‘balance’ and ‘counter-power’ to describethe EU’s potential role as a civil power, as opposed to the more one-sidedpower of what he describes as ‘the American empire’. He states that: ‘“size” nolonger refers to just weapon stockpiles or military control over territories, but toother forms of political capital’, thus pointing to precisely the kind of alternative‘balancing’ actions and ‘counter-power’ strategy—not necessarily usingmilitary means—that lie at the root of security and defence policy in Norden.In these terms, the Nordic security dynamic can be depicted as the interplayamong the region’s countries caused by the wish for balance and the practice ofcounter-power. This interplay gives these countries a collective Nordic appearanceeven though their actual cohesion may be questionable. Figure 8.1 showsthe Nordic security dynamic as consisting both of the pluralistic, multifacetedinternal processes in the respective countries and of an external strategy of ‘notputting all your eggs in one basket’ while making the most of what is available.BalanceWhile the Nordic countries have a long history as balancing powers in internationalpolitics, whether in peace-brokering activities or through their effortsnot to provoke larger players, the factors most often cited when describing themare their relatively small populations and their limited material resources. Theconsequence is that their will is often frustrated by a lack of means. This alsoleads to a permanent dilemma of prioritization, which accounts for a sizeableportion of the internal political debates and characterizes many of their defenceand security political actions.To some extent these things are true also of Norden collectively. Even as agroup, the Nordic countries cannot carry the same security burdens as, forinstance, the UK. 6 On all levels the available muscle has to be applied where itcomings, Madrid, 5 Mar. 2002, URL .5 Løvold, A., ‘Lille Norge og den nye globale orden’ [Little Norway and the new global order], InternasjonalPolitikk, no. 2, 2004, p. 275.6 The total military expenditure of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden was less than one-third ofthat of the UK in 2004. Stålenheim, P., Omitoogun, W. and Perdomo, C., ‘Tables of military expenditure’,