ABSTRACT
Had this stocktaking exercise taken place in the 1990s, it would have read like a classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale: the main characters, the four largest Scandinavian states 1 – Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – maturing from ugly ducklings sceptical of the United Nations (UN) to beautiful (blue) swans renowned and respected for having played leading roles in shaping UN development assistance and peacekeeping operations. 2 Leading roles in these two areas underpinned by close, institutionalized Nordic coordination and cooperation and strategic narratives promoting the Nordic brand created the international perception that these four countries constituted a united, progressive force in the UN during the Cold War, seeking to build bridges between East and West, North and South. Since the 1990s, this fairy tale has been transformed into a Greek tragedy characterized by declining unity, declining UN altruism and the rise of national interest (Development Today 2010; Jakobsen 2006; Norwegian Church Aid et al. 2015).
