Posts Tagged ‘Nordic Council’

When they meet in Oslo tomorrow, the 87 delegates to the Nordic Council, a gathering of legislators from the region, will be asking each other if they are ready for the next crisis. Strictly speaking, issues like foreign affairs, defence and security are not within the remit of the Nordic Council. The fact that its semi-annual session will again have the issue on its agenda anyway reflects two things: one, the pressing nature of the matter, and, two, the region’s growing reliance on a strategy known as “total defence”.

Since the start of Moscow’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, the Nordic and Baltic countries, fearing they are next, have been pumping a lot of money into their militaries, with Denmark’s prime minister going so far as to order the country’s generals to go on a shopping spree. Total defence makes that spending go a little further by giving the private sector and ordinary civilians a role to play during times of crisis—at a minimum, by making sure they can take care of themselves, so that the public sector and the military can concentrate on the most immediate threats. The thinking is that involving populations in emergency preparedness means they know what to do in the event something happens, and, not least, how to get themselves ready for it. Call it prepping, Nordic style.