Denmark’s New Foreign and Security Policy Strategy Meets Reality with ‘Pragmatic Idealism’

Table of Contents Introduction When Fiction Inspires Reality Denmark Must Bear Its Share in NATO, Going Beyond the Two-Per-Cent Target The Arctic Calls for Further NATO Co-operation The EU Needs More Decision-making Power: Denmark is Getting Ready Globalization Is Up for Change: Is Free Trade Under Deconstruction? Acknowledging the Need for a Stronger Foreign Service Will Denmark Succeed Where Canada Failed? About the Author Canadian Global Affairs Institute Introduction Denmark just got a new strategy for its foreign and security policy, although the most recent one dates back only to January 2022. The reason for already replacing the previous one can be explained in one word: Ukraine. Russia’s invasion in February 2022 has changed the whole security situation in Europe and creates “deep-rooted distrust, and long-term confrontation and unpredictability,” according to the new strategy. The war is seen as a war about values. Either Ukraine becomes a part of the democratic European family or it is re-integrated into the despotic-czar Russia 2.0. Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen writes in the foreword, “the ink had barely dried before a new geopolitical reality came crashing down … we must deal with the world as it actually is: uncertain, unpredictable and complicated. Brutal at times …” He describes Russia’s blatant disregard of international law, China’s clear signs of wanting more “elbow room” and building up its military capacities and the U.S. turning more attention to Asia, regardless of who is sitting in the White House. “We must not be naïve,” Rasmussen writes. “Countries act according to their own interests, not according to what would be good for Denmark … Everything is not equally good. Values still play a role. A balance has to be found between pragmatic realism and democratic idealism. Thus, pragmatic idealism is not a confrontation with our values either … on the contrary,” he adds