Adjacent Internationalism

Abstract

The Nordic states have long been known for their commitment to a distinctly social-democratic set of internationalist values, and the demise of communism in the Nordic states’ adjacent region provided an excellent opportunity to seek new forms of cooperation with their Baltic neighbours informed by the tradition of Nordic internationalism. Nordic internationalism has thus recently acquired a visible Baltic dimension, which is here defined as ‘adjacent internationalism’. The purpose of this article is to analyse this new branch of Nordic foreign policy against the backdrop of Nordic internationalism more generally through an examination of the Nordic states’ joint efforts to prepare the Baltic States for European Union (EU) membership. The main argument developed here is that adjacent internationalism has not only concretely facilitated Baltic EU membership, but has also given rise to an emergent Nordic–Baltic sphere of community. In so doing, it has contributed to the re-invigoration of the normative dimensions of inter-Nordic cooperation as well as Nordic internationalism more generally. In examining this issue, the article explores the key premises of Nordic international relations and offers a normatively informed reading of relations between states in a dynamic regional environment.