ABSTRACT
In seeking to present itself as a peace nation, Norway must address often the awkward questions of its military activism and NATO membership. This tension was especially apparent in Norway’s campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council 2020–2021. Using nation branding as an analytical framework, we ask how Norway, when vying for this seat, built and sustained this peace narrative and managed the competing narrative of its militarism. We also ask how Norway’s two competitors, Ireland and Canada, presented themselves on these two axes of peace and military activism. To explore these questions, we analyse campaign-related speeches and texts from Norwegian officials, together with the official campaign material from all three countries. Given that the image of all three states was generally similar, each country sought to find unique ways to brand themselves as well as countering the few specific advantages of the others. For Norway, the country’s military activism was downplayed and gender equality and international development cooperation were foregrounded, even if the links with security and peace were at times strained. Such a narrative would legitimate sufficiently the idea of Norway as a peace nation, a reliable partner that all states could trust.
