Being small in the world of the Leviathan

As mentioned in the SOW of this blog, its intention will be to mark out the role of Scandinavia and other core small states in general in a world where the Leviathan rules supreme in conventional warfare. In short, they will have three significant roles:

1. Administration of its immediate surroundings. The connectivity and rule sets of the core are not evenly distributed throughout the territories and surroundings of the countries that compose it - there will be "grey areas" where rules are unclear, and where connectivity is fluid. For Scandinavia, this in particular concerns the areas of the high north, where the continuing security vacuum is of real concern. Obviously, this is not purely a military concern, and it will require the employment of both military and civilian means to obtain it, but it nonetheless needs to be done.
   
2. Contributing to the shrinking of the gap. Scandinavia has traditionally participated extensively in emergency aid, development aid and peace keeping operations. Unfortunately, too often these operations have served more to maintain the status quo than fostering real change in levels of connectivity, and have made few inroads towards shrinking the gap. This needs to change, and in order to achieve such change, the organization and use of military and civilian institutions and forces need to change first.
   
3. Facilitating and supporting the operations of the Leviathan. The Scandinavian countries will most likely only be able to participate directly in Leviathan operations, i.e. wars, through the provision of niche capabilities, such as special forces with a speciality in cold weather operations, meaning that their main role in such operations will be an indirect one. By this I do not mean that they should give the US a blank check of operations, rather that they should be prepared to support in legitimate operations through logistics, basing and intelligence.

As Dr. Barnett mentions himself in the beginning of "Blueprint for Action," Scandinavian forces such as the Norwegians feel "too small to join in any big wars and too peacekeeping oriented to beat back any bloody insurgencies..." Yet their niche still lays in the middle between the big wars and the traditional peacekeeping. No, they probably cannot join in the large wars, but they can definitely step up from the traditional peacekeeping and participate more forcefully in SysAdmin operations, as both Norway and particularly Denmark have proven in Afghanistan, and they can do this without compromising their national security needs. In fact, if force structures, which will be described in a later post, are adequately reformed, then participating in SysAdmin operations may just be one of the most fruitful and important undertakings of Scandinavia's armed forces.

(Picture: Norwegian Forces fire mortars at presumed Taleban positions during combat operations in Northern Afghanistan, 2007)