Trusting neighbours? Public perceptions on civil defence cooperation across the Nordics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8911633 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rikard Bengtsson (0000-0002-2883-0730, corresponding author), Douglas Brommesson (0000-0001-6374-5964) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 799-822 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00108367241299800 |
| OpenAlex | W4405128053 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 33 |
This article zooms in on the pre-conditions on the citizens’ level for deeper Nordic cooperation on civil defence matters. Historical ties, Nordic security cooperation, high-trusting citizens and the fact that all five Nordic states now are members of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) speak in favour of increased cooperation on civil defence. Still, the experiences from the Covid-19 pandemic with different strategies, diverging policies and closed borders, as well as heated exchanges of views, provide us with contradicting expectations. Based on a unique dataset with over 11,000 Nordic respondents, we address these mixed expectations and study the trust of the Nordic citizens in both their respective government’s civil defence preparedness and the citizens’ preferences regarding Nordic and other forms of international cooperation in this area. The results show a significant variation of trust in the civil preparedness of national governments (Finland highest trust, Sweden lowest trust). The variation returns in the desire for deeper international cooperation with considerably lower level of support for enhanced Nordic cooperation among the Danish respondents and strong support for such cooperation among the Finns, Norwegians and Swedes. Hence, our results indicate a potential for enhanced cooperation among some Nordics, but not all
Civil defense · Perception · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Peacebuilding and International Security · Psychology · Public Administration
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Trust and Mistrust in International Relations
Ideas and Foreign Policy
The Oxford Handbook of Social and Political Trust
Cooperation in the Face of Transboundary Crisis
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Introducing the Study of Nordic Cooperation
The Nordic Balance Revisited
The causal nexus between trust, institutions and cooperation in international relations
Going global
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The Nordic governments' responses to the Covid‐19 pandemic
International Institutions and Socialization in Europe
Making Democracy Work
The impact of public opinion on voting and policymaking
The Effects of Issue Salience, Elite Influence, and Policy Content on Public Opinion
International Norm Dynamics and Political Change
How the coronavirus crisis affects citizen trust in institutions and in unknown others
Small states and the dilemma of geopolitics
Insufficiency of informal alignment
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 5 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |