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ON MARCH 21, 2003, the Danish Parliament acted to authorize Denmark's support of and active military participation in the us-led invasion of Iraq. In spite of afull-scale diplomatic effort by the United States at the United Nations Security Council, neither the un, nato, the EU, nor any other relevant international body had sanctioned the war. Authorizing the commitment of a submarine, a corvette, and a military medical unit, the Kingdom of Denmark became one of a small handful of nations, and the only Nordic state, to participate militarily in the initial invasion.
This essay examines Denmark's decision to participate in the invasion. It presents the argument that the government of Denmark has led the nation out of and away from its long-standing adherence to a set of principles and practices that have come to be known as the Scandinavian model of international relations.
THE SCANDINAVIAN MODEL1
The Scandinavian Model is a concept that stems from a set of internal similarities and an external uniqueness that set Scandinavia apart from the rest of the world. Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden are considered to be small states but have often been seen as examples of how states ought to conduct themselves in terms of the development and efficient administration of just law as well as the ensuing respect for the rule of law regarding both domestic and foreign policy. This aspect of the Scandinavian model in international relations is summarized by Christopher S. Browning as "the adoption of a broadly anti-militarist stance to international affairs, meaning that resort to military force should be rejected in all but the direst of circumstances and that if possible international problems should be resolved through diplomacy and recourse to the UN/international law." (32). Peter Lawler writes that "they [the Nordic states] appear to have consistently given greater weight to overtly normative and ethical considerations in the formulation and conduct of their foreign and security policies than most other developed states" (102).
During the twentieth century Scandinavia had earned an exemplary reputation in the practice of international relations. Going back at least to 1921 when Sweden and Finland acknowledged the League of Nations as the appropriate forum for the resolution of the dispute over the status of the Aland Islands, Scandinavia...