A special feature of Europe's Nordic region is that only one of its states has joined both the European Union and NATO. Nordic countries also share a certain distrust of approaches to security that rely too much on force or that may disrupt the logic and liberties of civil society. Impacting on this environment, the EU's decision in 1999 to develop its own military capacities for crisis management - taken together with other ongoing shifts in Western security agendas and US-Europe relations - has created complex challenges for Nordic policy establishments.

This multi-author volume combines the techniques of reporting and analysis, debate and reduction, to illuminate the consequences for the five Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The views expressed in it by Nordic and non-Nordic, younger and more established analysts reflect the political and intellectual ferment triggered in the Nordic region by these developments: in the process shedding light on defence and security challenges that matter deeply for Europe as a whole.