Exploring
The NORDIC REGION...
Student Text Page No. 3: "Tomorrow's Challenge"
Communications satellites over northern Europe are busy, these days.
Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians, and Swedes use those space-age links
to watch Brazilian soccer games, send e-mail to friends in Africa, and
spot new trends on the Japanese stock exchange.... No doubt about it:
The Nordic Region is wired.
The earliest Scandinavian ancestors of today's Nordic people "walked"
messages to the next village (or "rowed" them there by boat).
Their descendants, however, are into information and communications technologies
(ICT). And they've adopted them at a rapid rate. By the year 2003, about
9 percent of the Nordic Region's private-sector workers had ICT-related
jobs. And, after surveying 150 nations, the World Bank found that Nordic
countries ranked among the top 10 in this category: per-capita spending
on ICT.
Small world. Nordic people have always been interested in reaching
out to the rest of the world. More than 1,000 years ago, voyagers from
this region launched daring sea voyages, to exchange goods and ideas in
distant lands. And today, Nordic nations have high-tech industries that
depend on global markets. The big difference between then and now? Today's
world is more closely knit. Almost any crisis in the global marketplace
can affect Nordic economies. In 1990, for example, a drop in global oil
prices cut into the sales value of Norway's petroleum exports. And a decade
later, a slowdown in the global economy — plus a slump in telecommunications
— had a big impact on Finland's exports. Both nations recovered,
however. And by 2004, the Finns ranked first in economic competitiveness
among more than 100 economies worldwide! (All the other Nordic nations
ranked among the top 10.) The message was clear. Everyone is linked….
Big outreach. Trade is not the only factor that links Nordic peoples
to the world at large. Nordic nations cooperate with other Arctic countries
to monitor the impact of climate warming. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden
rank first, third, and fourth worldwide in the percent of gross national
income that they donate to foreign aid (2004). Peace-building is another
Nordic "export." In 1993, Norwegian diplomacy helped broker
a peacemaking plan between Israel and the Palestinians. And, after the
tragic events in America in September 2001, Nordic nations intensified
efforts to end global terrorism.
Alone, or together? "In unity lies strength." The governments
of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden had no problem with that
axiom, when they formed the Nordic Council in the 1950s. The Council helps
them to cooperate on many goals the protection of their fishing
beds, for example. And the five countries are also members of the peace-keeping
UN. But they have disagreed among themselves about certain other international
organizations. Thus, Denmark, Iceland, and Norway (but not Finland or
Sweden) belong to the mutual-defense pact known as the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO). And similarly, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden
(but not Iceland or Norway) have joined the "common-market"
European Union (EU). Even within the EU, Nordic members differ: Finland,
together with 11 other EU nations, decided to adopt the EU's new currency
(the euro). But Denmark and Sweden did not..
Regional Matters. As Nordic nations contemplate the rest of the
21st century, they face big issues: Can their 24.5 million citizens continue
to sustain the region's top-ranking economies (and the generous welfare
programs these economies support)? Would it be better for all five countries
to belong to the EU and NATO, which have been expanding eastward? One
thing is sure: As they deal with such matters, their example will help
us to ponder: How vital is it for nations in a region to cooperate
on foreign policy? What impact can a highly motivated, vigorous region
have on the rest of the world community?