ABSTRACT
The Nordic area, once rife with war, has become free of interstate violence. It challenges profoundly the ordinary, anarchy-oriented accounts of International Relations, and this is not just evidenced by statistics since 1815; it also applies to expectations and attitudes, in the sense that war among the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) has become inconceivable as a means of resolving conflicts. Actors in the region have, on numerous occasions, found their way out of situations that would have typically led to war (see Archer 1996; Archer and Joenniemi 2003; Wiberg 1993).
