Scandinavia in World Politics


Book Description

This clear and engaging text offers a sustained appraisal of Scandinavia's foreign policy and role in the global economy in the post-Cold War period. In an era when good citizenship in the global community has become a diplomatic priority for many states, Christine Ingebritsen argues that Scandinavia has both the legitimacy and the domestic political attributes to be an important international player. She examines how social innovators such as Sweden and Finland seek to influence European integration and how Norway has cultivated a unique and innovative niche in its foreign relations. Scandinavia, she convincingly shows, has become a 'norm entrepreneur, ' exercising its influence abroad through moral leadership-from sponsoring the Nobel Prize and participating in global peacekeeping efforts to providing generous foreign aid and monitoring human rights abuses in the international community. Demonstrating how Scandinavia has made its model of the good society viable on a global scale, this text offers a fascinating case of small-state success and individuality in an increasingly globalized world




The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics is a comprehensive overview of Scandinavian politics provided by leading experts in the field and covering the polity, the politics and the policy of Scandinavia. Coherently structured with a multi-level thematic approach, it explains and details Scandinavian politics today through a series of cutting-edge chapters. It will be a key reference point both for advanced-level students developing knowledge about the subject, as well as researchers producing new material in the area and beyond. It brings geographical scope and depth, with comparative chapters contributed by experts across the region. Methodologically and theoretically pluralistic, the handbook is in itself a reflection of the field of political science in Scandinavia and the diversity of the issues covered in the volume. The Routledge Handbook of Scandinavian Politics will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers and practitioners interested and working in the fields of Scandinavian politics, European politics, comparative politics and international relations.




Modern Welfare States


Book Description

Analyses the political, economic & social challenges facing the industrial democracies of Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland & Sweden. This study emphasizes how global & European developments have affected democratic policymaking in areas such as social welfare policy, employment policy, & social change.




Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir


Book Description

With its focus on the popular television genre of Nordic noir, this book examines subtle and explicit manifestations of geopolitics in crime series from Scandinavia and Finland, as well as the impact of such programmes on how northern Europe is viewed around the world. Drawing on a diverse set of literature, from screen studies to critical International Relations, Geopolitics, Northern Europe, and Nordic Noir addresses the fraught geopolitical content of Nordic television series, as well as how Nordic noir as a genre travels the globe. With empirical chapters focusing on the interlinked concepts of the body, the border, and the nation-state, this book interrogates the various ways in which northern European states grapple with challenges wrought by globalisation, neoliberalism, and climate change. Reflecting the current global fascination with all things Nordic, this text examines the light and dark sides of the region as seen through the television screen, demonstrating that series such as Occupied, Trapped, and The Bridge have much to teach us about world politics. This book will be of interest to those interested in geopolitics, national identity, and the politics of popular culture in: Scandinavian studies, media/screen studies, IR/political science, human/cultural geography, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and communication.




The Nordic Model


Book Description

The political structures of the Scandinavian nations have long stood as models for government and public policy. This comprehensive study examines how that “Nordic model” of government developed, as well as its far-reaching influence. Respected Scandinavian historian Mary Hilson surveys the political bureaucracies of the five Nordic countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—and traces their historical influences and the ways they have changed, individually and as a group, over time. The book investigates issues such as economic development, foreign policy, politics, government, and the welfare state, and it also explores prevailing cultural perceptions of Scandinavia in the twentieth century. Hilson then turns to the future of the Nordic region as a unified whole within Europe as well as in the world, and considers the re-emergence of the Baltic Sea as a pivotal region on the global stage. The Nordic Model offers an incisive assessment of Scandinavia yesterday and today, making this an essential text for students and scholars of political science, European history, and Scandinavian studies.




Scandinavia and the Great Powers 1890-1940


Book Description

Survey of the changing position of all four Nordic states in twentieth-century international relations.




Scandinavian Politics Today


Book Description

This fully revised and updated second edition of Scandinavian Politics Today describes, analyzes and compares the contemporary politics and international relations of the five nation-states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and the three Home Rule territories of Greenland, Faeroes and Åland that together make up the Nordic region. Thirteen chapters cover Scandinavia past and present; parties in developmental perspective, the Scandinavian party system model, the Nordic model of government, the Nordic welfare model, legislative-executive relations in the region, the changing security environment and the transition from Cold War "security threats" to the "security challenges" of today, and a concluding chapter that looks at regional co-operation, Nordic involvement in the ‘European project’ and the Nordic states as "moral superpowers." The book will be of interest not only to students of Scandinavia, but to those wishing to view Scandinavian politics and policy-making in a wider comparative perspective.




Scandinavia in the First World War


Book Description

Denmark, Norway, and Sweden all managed to stay out of the First World War, but all three were deeply affected by it. When the trade war and blockades came into play, the Scandinavian countries were subject to relentless pressure. Inflation and shortages of consumer goods caused widespread hardship and, ultimately, political unrest. The result was the widening social divide and bitter political divisions that marked the inter-war years. In Scandinavia in the First World War, the authors analyse aspects of the military and economic consequences of the Great War, and explore how intellectuals engaged in political propaganda and the peace movement. They also look at the experiences of the groups who came into immediate contact with the war: seamen, journalists, volunteer nurses, and thousands of Scandinavian soldiers. With a comparative introduction to the history of the Scandinavian countries during the First World War and detailed case-studies, this volume presents a wide-ranging survey of the situation in the neutral Scandinavian states. With its cross-disciplinary approach, it touches on cultural, social, and military history, as well as literary and minority studies.




Scandinavian Politics Today


Book Description

This volume represents a unique study of contemporary politics and policy-making in the five nation-states and three Home Rule territories of the Nordic region. Written in a lively and readable style by an expert in the field, its approach is systematically thematic and comparative. Chapters deal with current political science issues such as nation-building and state-building, party system change, semi-presidentialism and post-corporatism, as well as addressing intrinsically important regional questions such as whether or not there is a Nordic model of government, a distinctively Scandinavian form of parliamentarianism and a superior welfare system. There is also detailed discussion of the Nordic states in their strategic external environment, focusing on the post-war security configuration in northern Europe and the impact of European integration on Scandinavia.




Gender Equality and Welfare Politics in Scandinavia


Book Description

This book examines the meanings of gender that underpin policies in the Scandinavian welfare states, historically and today, and raises the question whether the hallmark of the Scandinavian welfare model is a special combination of gender equality and gender differentiation.