Norsk-svenskt försvarssamarbete i en ny tid

摘要

Nordic defence cooperation has been limited in recent history. Although duringthe interwar years of 1918–39 and World War II, there were proposals aiming ata coordinated, or joint, Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian defence policy, they failedto produce concrete results. Negotiations about a Scandinavian Defence Unionin 1948–49 also floundered. In April 1949 Norway, Denmark and Iceland joinedNATO, while Finland and Sweden remained non-aligned in no small partdue to fearing Soviet reactions.The end of the Cold War has brought dramatic changes to Northern Europe:Finland and Sweden have become members of the European Union, and theformer Soviet republics have become sovereign states. In addition, practicallyall Western countries have radically cut defence spending and are undergoing amassive defence transformation from a focus on territorial defence and quantityto a focus on expeditionary peace operations and quality. This process hasprompted closer defence cooperation between Norway, Finland and Sweden, especiallyin recent years. The rationale for this is primarily economic: small statescan no longer afford to maintain large (transformed) defence forces.In this book, the Norwegian-Swedish defence cooperation envisioned isanalysed from three perspectives:Ove Härnqvist characterizes it using the concepts of “integration” and“dependence”, arguing that the military integration could be more comprehensivethan NATO’s. However, the cooperation proposed is not as mutually bindingas that within the Alliance.Håkan Edström analyses it from a policy perspective, while Ole AndersØie focuses on doctrine. Both authors conclude that there are many strong foundationsfor wider and deeper cooperation, but they also identify several linguisticbarriers that might weaken the conceptual base. At neither the level of policynor doctrine do the two countries use the same terminology or definitions.