Theories and Practices of Societal Security in the Scandinavian Countries: A Comparative Analysis

The research attempts to conduct a comparative analysis of conceptual representations of societal security, its functions and practices in Scandinavian countries after the Cold War, when traditional security strategies focusing on geopolitics, specific war-related threats, and territorial defense are overlaid with new understandings of “threats” and the necessary range of state actions to address them. Strategies of ‘resilience’, risk management’, ‘crisis’ or ‘emergency management’ become important. In the Nordic countries, the need for societal security is coming to the fore, linked to the development of a social welfare society. The similarities in the theory and practice of societal security allow us to speak about the possible existence of own, Scandinavian system of societal/complex security. Our investigation shows that the Scandinavian way of ensuring security was formed on the basis of the “Scandinavian model”, founded on socialization and integration, and the basis of the new socio-philosophical understanding of security was readiness for broad actions: from military invasion to environmental threats, man-made disasters and terrorist attacks. However, a generally accepted interpretation of societal security among the Scandinavian countries has not yet developed; each country has its own peculiarities. However, differences are as common as similarities. Although there are undoubtedly special, Scandinavian values and ways to protect them. Identification of these peculiarities is the purpose of the presented study, which attempts to answer the question whether it is possible to speak about the existence of a special, “Scandinavian way” of conceptualizing and ensuring security. For this purpose, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of security concepts, their formulation, and, most importantly, practical actions to ensure societal security in the states of the Scandinavian Peninsula on the example of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland.