The Nordic Peace

The first authoritative account concerning the lack of conflict in the Nordic region, this text evaluates why the area is more peaceful than the rest of Europe and whether there is a lesson to be learned from the area. Looking at cases where parts of the Nordic area have started to break away from the others and how this was achieved without violence, it also explores the settlement of demarcation disputes. By using this region as an example for the rest of Europe, this book tests the hypothesis of the Nordic Peace using a number of approaches including historical, political science, peace research, sociology and law. This highly insightful piece of research is relevant for courses in international relations and European studies.

For a long time, the Nordic countries have been a region of peace, with the ability to resolve conflicts peacefully among themselves, and a region for peace, actively promoting peace globally. Although efforts to actively brand the Nordic region are ongoing, the Nordic Peace brand is an area with untapped potential. The Nordics have rich traditions for working together on peace and conflict resolution. These joint efforts have grown organically and informally from like-mindedness, letting the common Nordic culture and ways of working foster integration among them where relevant. The people working in the Nordic countries on Nordic cooperation and peace recognize the potential of strengthening the Nordic Peace brand. One area of special potential is increasing focus on the shared Nordic priorities of prevention and the women, peace and security agenda as part of the Nordic Peace brand.

This is a new examination of Nordic approaches to peace operations after the Cold War and how they have remained relevant. They continue to have much to offer to both academics and practitioners in this particular field.

This book explores historically and theoretically Nordic peace as a marker of identification, ontological (in)security and regional branding. It emphasizes how conceptions of Nordic peace have been translated into policy practices and how it has maintained its relevance over time. The book distinguishes between the Nordic region as a region of peace, a prime example of a Deutschian security community, and as a region for peace, cultivating the role of a global humanitarian norm promoter and peacebuilder, but also interrogating how these two understandings of Nordic peace have been mutually constitutive and interdependent. The book discusses the politics of 'Nordic peace', analyzing what the concept does and enables, and why it continues to endure and exert affective appeal. Furthermore, it considers contemporary challenges, not least connected to the implications of the war in Ukraine, but also the potential future opportunities facing ideas of Nordic peace as Nordic peace is refashioned, once again, towards a new regional and global context. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Peace Research, Nordic or Scandinavian Studies, History, Nationalism Studies, Critical Security Studies, and International Relations.

In 1999 the EU decided to develop its own military capacities for crisis management. This book brings together a group of experts to examine the consequences of this decision on Nordic policy establishments, as well as to shed new light on the defence and security issues that matter for Europe as a whole.

This book offers a new analysis of the Nordic Peace after its onset in 1814, the year that marks the end to centuries of warfare between the Nordic countries, and the applicability of the Nordic solutions and principles for North East Asian conflicts. Through an analysis of three key post-1814 conflicts that the Nordic region resolved peacefully - the Union of Norway and Sweden (1814-1905), the issue on the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein between Denmark and Germany (1864-1920 & 1955), and the Aaland Islands problem between Finland and Sweden (1809-1922), the book examines how the solutions that underlie the Nordic Peace transcended causes for conflict, and if there is universal potential in the Nordic solutions for similar conflicts in North East Asia