ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that security thinking in the Nordic – and later Baltic – region, while being dominated by Realist assumptions for much of the Cold War period, was penetrated by other views, especially Liberal Institutionalist ones, arising from the domestic politics of some of the Nordic states. Keohane and Martin conclude that ‘institutions can provide information, reduce transaction costs, make commitments more credible, establish focal points for coordination and, in general, facilitate the operation of reciprocity’. Broadly speaking decision-makers in the Nordic states had little choice during the Cold War years but to accept the policy-consequences of being part of the East-West divide. There was an attempt in 1948 to create a ‘Nordic Defence Union’ by the three Scandinavian states but, as the Cold War divisions deepened in Europe, this failed and Denmark and Norway, with Iceland, joined NATO, and only Sweden remained outside any alliance.
