Revisiting Nordic Peace

This book explores historically and theoretically Nordic peace as a marker of identification, ontological (in)security and regional branding. It emphasizes how conceptions of Nordic peace have been translated into policy practices and how it has maintained its relevance over time.

The book distinguishes between the Nordic region as a region of peace, a prime example of a Deutschian security community, and as a region for peace, cultivating the role of a global humanitarian norm promoter and peacebuilder, but also interrogating how these two understandings of Nordic peace have been mutually constitutive and interdependent. The book discusses the politics of ’Nordic peace’, analyzing what the concept does and enables, and why it continues to endure and exert affective appeal. Furthermore, it considers contemporary challenges, not least connected to the implications of the war in Ukraine, but also the potential future opportunities facing ideas of Nordic peace as Nordic peace is refashioned, once again, towards a new regional and global context.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Peace Research, Nordic or Scandinavian Studies, History, Nationalism Studies, Critical Security Studies, and International Relations.

Christopher S. Browning is Reader of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

Marko Lehti is Research Director and Senior Research Fellow at Tampere Peace Research Institute (TAPRI) and Academic Director of the master’s programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research (PEACE), both at Tampere University, Finland.

Johan Strang is Professor at the Centre for Nordic Studies (CENS), University of Helsinki, Finland.