This review essay critically examines variation in the meanings of Nordicness – that is, the perceptions and recognitions of a specific Nordic role in the foreign and security policy of the various Nordic states (Brommesson, 2018) – in International Relations as expressed in research published over the last 60 years. The aim is reached both through a quantitative overview of the number of articles published in Cooperation and Conflict , the premier Nordic journal on International Relations celebrating its 60th anniversary, and through a review of the meanings of Nordicness expressed in the research published in the journal and elsewhere. The quantitative overview reveals how the number of articles focusing on the Nordic has varied over time, with low numbers in the first and latest decades of Cooperation and Conflict , high numbers in the second decade (1975–1984), stable medium numbers from the mid 1980s to 2015, and low numbers thereafter. The qualitative review reveals variations in the meaning of Nordicness, with a focus on balancing roles when there was increased security policy tension during the Cold War, and a focus on Nordic actorness on the global stage, based on roles as ‘forces for good’, when the structural conditions have been more permissive.
Douglas Brommesson (Mon,) studied this question.