Regional cooperation of the Nordic states in the security and defense sphere.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31558/2519-2949.2019.3.17Keywords:
security and defense policy, regional cooperation, Northern Europe, non-alignment, NORDEFCOAbstract
This article is devoted to a security issue, in particular its military-political factor which is coming back on the agenda of the European countries. The subject of research of the article is a cooperation of the Nordic countries in security and defense sector. It is focused on a regional scale of cooperation as a temporary alternative to NATO integration for non-aligned states of the region. An activity of the Nordic states related to realization of a common security policy is analyzed. It is defined an impact of Russian factor on a process and intensity of a defense cooperation, as well as the main challenges for the Northern Europe in this matter.
In particular, the author divides the defense cooperation of the states into certain periods, each of which he characterizes in terms of the cooperation intensity and its priority. For example, the period from a finish of bloc confrontation, when the security matters lost its relevance to some extent and to 2009, when the Nordic Defense Cooperation was created. The short-term interval from 2009 to 2014, during which the regional defense cooperation had been developing but slowly and sometimes problematically, in view of the incoherence between states. And finally, the period from 2014, when the security and defense matters became more important for the Northern Europe, which was had been caused by Russian aggression in Ukraine, as well as by increasing of Russian military activity in the Northern Europe.
Besides, the article characterizes a cooperation of the Nordic countries with NATO and analyzes the opportunities for non-aligned states to enhance such the cooperation with the Alliance. In turn, the author considers the regional security and defense cooperation as a temporary alternative to NATO integration, which potentially may become a favorable factor for non-aligned states to join the Alliance.
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