The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

DOMESTIC INFLUENCES 81Denmark: NATO Nordic EU memberIn Denmark (and the non-EU NATO members Iceland and Norway), Atlanticismaccompanies ‘federo-scepticism’. The government gained domestic supportfor participation in NATO by arguing that Atlanticism and a close relationshipwith the USA were essential prerequisites for the country’s secure futureand for the stability of the Nordic region. Of course, the Danish population(unlike that of Norway) has not always unreservedly accepted this, and thegovernment was often keen to stress that Nordic Atlanticism was qualified byan attachment to the key common Nordic internationalist values mentionedabove. Hence, for many years Denmark (like Norway) balanced its activeparticipation in NATO with a ‘no foreign bases’ policy that rejected thepermanent stationing of NATO forces and any nuclear presence on their territories.Nevertheless, it can be argued that in Denmark (as well as Iceland andNorway) the primacy of Atlanticism was portrayed and largely accepted bydomestic actors as the core of successful security policies.From the perspective of the Nordic members of NATO, the evolving ESDPhas been viewed through the prism of Atlanticism: thus, in domestic debates,the Danes, Icelanders and Norwegians have shown concern that the ESDPshould not undermine the role of NATO, whose membership they value. Whenthis is linked with widespread ‘federo-scepticism’, national actors are concernedthat the ESDP should imply neither a reduced role for NATO nor anintegrative move by the EU towards a federal Europe.In all three Nordic EU member states there is also something of an eliteversus grass roots division of emphases as regards Nordic security policy. Itwould seem that domestic actors and, in particular, the publics are more deeplyattached to the ‘theology’ of their respective existing security policies—be itnon-alignment or Atlanticism. In contrast, and with some simplification, thediplomatic demands of conducting negotiations on security issues have madethe political elites of the countries more pragmatic regarding their existingpolicy stances and more open to the supranational development of the ESDP.III. The domestic background: structural considerationsIn addition to the general Nordic domestic discourse on the ESDP, it is alsoimportant to recognize structural considerations shaping Nordic policy on theESDP. First has been the capacity of Nordic governments for initiating freshdomestic discussions on Nordic security policy in general and the ESDP inparticular. This is an important variable inter alia because the propensity forlaunching public debates is shaped partly by the division of the power to leadsecurity policy. In the Finnish case, for example, formal competence for EUpolicy and for certain aspects of foreign policy was moved from the president tothe prime minister by constitutional reforms implemented in 2000. This changewas, in part, in recognition of the wide-ranging impact of the EU on domestic