DREAMING OF A UNITED ‘NORDEN’ (The North) : Four central Nordic actors about the progress and extent of Nordic cooperation

Abstract Title: DREAMING OF A UNITED ‘NORDEN’ (The North) – Four central Nordic actors about the progress and extent of Nordic cooperation The Nordic cooperation are often spoken as in terms of a peaceful international cooperation that is built upon a wide range of similarities among its members, such as a common culture, language similarities and a related kind of political system etc. But in spite of the fact that these so called propitious factors are present, many of the attempts that has been made trying to bring the states of the North (Norden) closer together has turned out unsuccessfully. Therefore no far-reaching Nordic cooperation has come to be implemented. The aim of this essay is to find out what the main reasons could be why this has been the case. I have chosen to take a closer look at the motives given by the former Nordic Prime ministers Tage Erlander (Sweden), Karl August Fagerholm (Finland), Einar Gerardsen (Norway) and Mauno Koivisto (Finland). To find out their thoughts on this subject I have studied their (political) memoirs. The reason I have chosen these actors is because they have been personally involved in the attempts to deepen the Nordic cooperation, for example in such fields as economics and military defence. When trying to find out what can explain the extent of the Nordic cooperation I’m also interested in finding out if there is a certain kind of motives that are more dominant then others. Is it common culture, interests or leadership which is the most dominant category of motives? These three mentioned categories are taken from arguments given by different schools of international relations theories such as realism, liberalism etc. After analysing the memoirs I have been able to come to the conclusion that it according to Erlander, Fagerholm, Gerhardsen and Koivosto are motives concerning interests that have been the most determining factor when talking about motives that can explain the extent of the Nordic cooperation. Further we can conclude that these interests have been of both domestic as well as of international nature. But it also seems like we can’t ignore the case specific conditions when we’re trying to understand international relations, such as the Nordic cooperation