Nordic States and European Integration

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: Awkward Partners in the North?

   • Malin Stegmann McCallion, Alex Brianson

   Pages 1-11

3. As Awkward as They Need to Be: Denmark’s Pragmatic Activist Approach to Europe

   • Anders Wivel

   Pages 13-34

4. Re-Assessing Finland’s Integration Policy: The End of Domestic Consensus?

   • Hanna Ojanen, Tapio Raunio

   Pages 35-58

5. Swedish Awkwardness à La Carte? The Difference a Question Mark Can Make

   • Malin Stegmann McCallion

   Pages 59-78

6. From ‘Awkward Partner’ to ‘Awkward Partnership’? Explaining Norway’s Paradoxical Relations with the European Union

   • Stefan Gänzle, Thomas Henökl

   Pages 79-102

7. Iceland: The Dominant Party in Thrall to Its Past Discourse

   • Baldur Thorhallsson

   Pages 103-127

8. Conclusions—Awkward Nordics and the Study of Regional Integration

   • Alex Brianson

   Pages 129-139

9. Back Matter

   Pages 141-143

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This book provides the first lengthy study of awkward states/partners in regional integration. Is awkwardness a characteristic of states in many global regions, or is it reducible to the particular case of the United Kingdom in European integration? The authors assess how far the concept of ‘awkwardness’ can travel, and apply it to the cases of the Nordic States’ involvement in and with the European Union - Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Iceland and Norway. The renewed interest in the Nordic region is in part thanks to recent events in the on-going crisis of European integration, and particular its member states’ response to the refugee question, which appears to be undermining years of intra-regional solidarity even between the Nordic countries. The security dimension of the region further broadens the book’s readership beyond Nordic Politics specialists to IR scholars, as the Nordic countries share borders with Russia and are key players in the Baltic Sea Strategy seeking to involve Russia in looser forms of regional cooperation.

• Denmark and the EU
• Sweden and the EU
• Finland and the EU
• Norway and the EU
• integration policies in Nordic states
• Euroscepticism in Nordic states
• relationship between Nordic states
• political differences among Nordic states
• Nordic relationship with Russia
• European foreign and security policy
• Euro crisis
• Politicization of EU affairs
• Public opinion and European Integration
• Iceland and the EU
• Economic power relations in Nordic states
• Security relations in Nordic states

“This is an invigorating comparative assessment of awkward states that opens up new avenues for research and sophisticated conceptual advances.  It illustrates that there are many awkward states in regional integration – and so it is especially timely. The study of these Nordic states provides us with excellent scholarly expertise in one accessible volume.” (Professor Philomena Murray, the University of Melbourne, Australia)

• Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden

  Malin Stegmann McCallion

• University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom

  Alex Brianson

Malin Stegmann McCallion is Reader in Political Science at Karlstad University, Sweden. She has published in journals such as L'Europe en formation, Journal of European Integration, Regional Studies, and Regional and Federal Studies. Her research interests are regionalisation, multi-level governance and Swedish membership in the European Union. She is currently the Swedish expert with the Assembly of European Regions.

Alex Brianson is Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Kent’s Global Europe Centre, UK. He was formerly Professor of EU Politics at the University of Surrey, and previously held chairs at Brunel University and the University of Limerick. His research interests have focused on democracy and reform of the EU, differentiated integration, Green approaches to European integration, and comparative regional integration/regionalism.

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