The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

4. Domestic influences on Nordic security anddefence policy: from the perspective offusionLee MilesI. IntroductionThe traditional discourse associated with the Nordic countries in the context ofsecurity questions typically emphasizes the importance of domestic factors inthe shaping of their policies on the European Union’s security and defencepolicy and on security in general. In the first place this may simply reflect thefact that the Nordic countries are mature liberal democracies. As such, most ofthem display strong tendencies towards consensus policy making in the nationalcontext, and so the emphasis on seeking domestic consensus will—albeit to alimited extent—spill over into the making of foreign policy. With somesimplification, there is a systemic tendency endemic in these open and transparentsystems of governance to ensure that the main tenets of Nordic securitypolicies enjoy the broad support of the elite of the mainstream political partiesand often of the whole population. Second, the wider political values held byNordic populations, such as strong attachments to internationalism, peace andsecurity, a liberal view of human rights and moral responsibilities towardsdeveloping countries, are consistent features of the Nordic countries’ foreignpolicies. Of course, many might dispute whether the foreign and security policiesof the Nordic countries are influenced by domestic factors and reflect the‘will of the people’, or whether it is the foreign-policy makers who have beenactive in shaping the will of the population. This would, however, miss thepoint and is largely an esoteric exercise in analysis. What is important is torecognize that the domestic background is influential and has a complex interrelationshipwith the shaping of Nordic countries’ foreign and security policies.Furthermore, it can be argued that domestic factors will particularly influenceNordic perspectives towards the evolving European Security and DefencePolicy precisely because ‘Europe’ has such resonance and attracts such controversyin Nordic domestic debates. For the domestic populations, and irrespectiveof whether the country is an EU member or not, discussions on Europe havea comparatively long history dating back several decades. The Nordic populationsview the ESDP through the prism of broader, often volatile popularviews about the merits of further integration (in Denmark, Finland and Sweden)and EU membership (in Iceland and Norway).