Transnational co-operation and European regions: The Nordic model in comparison

7 November 2013

After several years in the doldrums, the idea of Nordic inter-regional co-operation seems to be enjoying a renaissance. International interest in the region's innovations in economic and social policy - highlighted for example by The Economist's special issue on "The Nordic Supermodel" in February 2013 - has been matched by a growing attention to regional cohesion within the region. For example, there have been successful recent initiatives in cross-border collaboration particularly in security and defence policy, while recent reports on future scenarios for Nordic co-operation commissioned by the Nordic Council have attracted widespread attention.

The proposed seminar will attempt to explore the Nordic renaissance in the wider context of European debates about regionalisation, by comparing the Nordic experience with that of two other European regions: the Benelux countries and the Balkans.  Is the Nordic region unique as an example of successful regional co-operation, or are its cross-border institutions paralleled elsewhere? Does the recent Nordic experience of regional co-operation (for example in defence) have implications for similar initiatives elsewhere? What can we learn from the Nordic example about the prospects for regionalisation in Europe?

The seminar will take the form of an open discussion bringing together experts from the Nordic region with scholars from UCL.
Participants:

• Dr Bojan Aleksov (UCL SSEES), Lecturer in Southeast European History (on the Balkans)
• Dr Ulrich Tiedau (UCL Dutch), Senior Lecturer in Modern Low Countries History and Society (on Benelux)
• Dr Johan Strang (Centre for Nordic Studies, Helsinki University), Researcher and author of report Nordic Communities - A Vision for the Future (Nordic Council, 2012)
• Chair: Dr Mary Hilson (UCL Scandinavian Studies)

• And: members of the network Nordic Co-operation Revisited.

Mary Hilson and Johan Strang will also be discussing Nordic co-operation at a meeting of the Nordic Horizons group at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Tuesday 5 November - see here for more information.

All welcome. The seminar will be followed by wine and nibbles.