‘Footnoting’ as a political instrument: Denmark’s NATO policy in the 1980s

The intensification of the Cold War in the 1980s bred tensions within both the NATO alliance and its member states. Criticism of NATO’s policy was pronounced among the social democratic parties in Northern Europe and found extraordinary expression in Denmark during the so-called footnote period of 1982–88. Here a coalition of centre-left opposition parties was able to control NATO policy by way of parliamentary resolutions which forced the government to take increasingly critical positions in NATO, mainly by ‘footnoting’ communiqués. The government chose to ‘live with’ footnoting in order to keep power. The result was domestic strife, allied criticism and a policy which moved Denmark away from NATO’s mainstream.