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Danish Security Policy over the last 50 Years - Long-Term Essential Security Priorities
Bertel Heurlin
Danish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract
This article gives an overview of Danish security policy over the last 50 years using long-term essential security priorities as the analytical point of departure. Based on general foreign and security policy aims the following security priorities are identified: Firstly politically oriented: 1. international norms, law, and order, 2. co-operation and integration, 3. Defence. Secondly geographically oriented: a universal, an Atlantic, a Western European, an All-European, and a Nordic priority. It is argued that although democratisation, internationalisation, and individualisation of Danish security policy have taken place in the period, it has not led to less domestic consensus. Further it is argued that the end of the Cold War implied significant shifts in the priorities, not least concering the geographically oriented essential priorities. The conclusion is that these priorites are converging into an all-European-atlantic line with weight on the universal dimension. The introduction of ESDP, European Security and Defence Policy is, however, a serious challenge to the Danish security policy of international activism. The prospects for the immediate years seem bleak.
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