Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook 2009

The Arctic, piracy, development aid, and much more...

Preface by the editors

Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook focuses on Danish foreign policy and Denmark’s position within an international and transnational context – at the regional as well as the global level. In line with the yearbook’s tradition, this volume presents the official outline of Denmark’s 2008 foreign policy by the Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Ulrik Federspiel. In addition, we have included scholarly articles by Nikolaj Petersen, Lars Erslev Andersen, and Lars Engberg-Pedersen, who represent only themselves and their academic expertise.

The Arctic, an emerging scene of international cooperation and conflict, is analysed by Nikolaj Petersen. Special focus is on the background and implications of the Danish Ilulissat initiative. Inspired by piracy in the Gulf of Aden, Lars Erslev Andersen then reflects on its causes and cures, including the differences between terrorism and piracy. Finally, Lars Engberg-Pedersen turns the
searchlight to Danish foreign aid in the context of international development cooperation, including the contradictions that characterize its structural conditions.

The articles are abstracted, both in English and Danish, at the outset of chapter one. After the articles follows a small selection of official documents, which we consider to be pioneering or

characteristic of Danish foreign policy during 2008. This is supplemented by essential statistics on Danish foreign policy, as well as some of the most relevant polls on the attitude of the Danish population on key foreign policy questions. A bibliography then offers a limited selection of scholarly books, articles, and chapters published in 2008 in English, German or French dealing with the yearbook’s topic.

The editors of Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook are Director Nanna Hvidt and Hans Mouritzen, Head of DIIS foreign policy research. Members of the editorial Advisory Board have provided crucial inputs for the thematic selection process for the scholarly articles. We are grateful to Rebecca Adler-Nissen (Copenhagen University), Svend Aage Christensen, Bjørn Møller, and Ole Therkildsen (all DIIS) for refereeing the article drafts. Stud.scient.pol. Pauline Sachs has served as the assistant editor, while Robert Parkin has been our linguistic consultant.

The editors
DIIS, Copenhagen

The International Situation and Danish Foreign Policy 2008

Ulrik Federspiel
The Permanent Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs describes Denmark’s diverse foreign policy engagements in 2008, a year that was marked by crisis and that required innovative solutions to crosscutting global problems such as food security, the financial crisis and climate change, as well as multifaceted crisis management from Afghanistan to Kosovo, and from Somalia to Georgia. The focus is on (1) the outlines of a ‘New Multilateralism’ stimulated by the crises of 2008; (2) the management of conflicts in which the interaction of instruments became much more prevalent in 2008; (3) Europe’s adaptation to the new challenges, based on necessary reforms within the EU, as well as Europe’s relations with its immediate neighbours, and a continued strong transatlantic relationship; and (4) organisational reflections in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on how to adapt to the new challenges of globalisation.

The Arctic as a New Arena for Danish Foreign Policy: The Ilulissat Initiative and its Implications

Nikolaj Petersen
In May 2008, Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller summoned colleagues from the other Arctic Ocean coastal states to Ilulissat, Greenland, for a meeting. In the so-called Ilulissat Declaration, the five states declared themselves to be in a ‘unique position’ to address the future possibilities and challenges in the Arctic and promised to do so in a responsible way. The article first discusses the background to the declaration in recent developments, such as global warming, the prospects of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic, and the division of the Arctic Ocean’s outer continental shelf, which are turning the Arctic into a strategic area in its own right. After a discussion of the regional policies of Russia, the US, Canada and Norway, a detailed analysis is provided of the making of the Danish Ilulissat Initiative. The final part of the article discusses the implications of the declaration for the future management of activities in the Arctic Ocean, including the need for specific regimes. The article concludes that the Arctic is likely to become an important new arena for Danish foreign policy,
causing a considerable drain on resources.

Piracy in the Gulf of Aden: Reflections on the Concepts of Piracy and Order

Lars Erslev Andersen
The article is structured around three core questions concerning the counterpiracy effort in the Gulf of Aden. First, the article asks whether the deployment of battleships under the umbrella of US ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ is the best way to protect merchant ships against piracy. Secondly, it questions whether the presence of an international fleet presents an immediate or a longterm solution to the problem of piracy. Finally, it asks whether there are any links between terrorism and piracy. The two concepts are discussed and seen as signifying two very different types of violation of the international order. The problem of Somali piracy cannot be solved in international waters, and the international community may be better able to fight piracy in the long run through support for the stabilization of Somali conditions. The article further argues that no connection exists between piracy and al-Qaida-inspired terrorism. It argues that the risk of Somalia becoming a safe haven for al-Qaida, like Afghanistan in the 1990s until 2001 and, to some extent, Pakistan today, is not very significant.

The Future of Danish Foreign Aid: the Best of the Second-best?

Lars Engberg-Pedersen
International development cooperation is being confronted by new challenges, and old problems continue to play a role. Collectively, they create a number of contradictions that undermine the effectiveness of aid. As the contradictions lie with the structural conditions that characterise international development cooperation, development actors themselves have limited opportunities to address them. The contradictions stand or fall with broader changes at the global level. Danish foreign aid is strongly influenced by international development cooperation and accordingly also by its contradictions. Apart from describing the contradictions, this article analyses Danish aid, given the ambiguous relationship between domestic conditions and tendencies in international cooperation. It maps Danish aid in relation to the contradictions and argues that the ongoing struggle between a development perspective and a domestic politics perspective makes the future development of Danish aid fairly unpredictable.

Furthermore, the publication includes a collection of official speeches on Danish foreign policy in 2008, economic key figures and opinion polls concerning different aspects of Danish foreign policy, and a bibliography of English-language publications on the subject published in 2008.

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