This work explains the paradox of the close involvement of Norway with the Atlantic Alliance and its distance from mainstream European integration. The authors explore: the precarious nature of Norway's relationship with European integration; and the conditions for Norwegian membership of the EU.

In 1999 the EU decided to develop its own military capacities for crisis management. This book brings together a group of experts to examine the consequences of this decision on Nordic policy establishments, as well as to shed new light on the defence and security issues that matter for Europe as a whole.

This book provides the first substantial treatment of the maritime foreign and security policies of the European Union. Its findings add to the literature by a comparative, theoretically informed analysis of EU maritime foreign and security policies across five cases: the EU’s Maritime Security Strategy and action plan; the EU’s two naval missions, Atalanta and Sophia; EU Arctic policies, and; EU policies towards the Maritime Labour Convention. Focusing on the aims, actors and mechanisms of integration in these cases, the book speaks to the three main debates in the literature on EU foreign policy, including whether it has a particular normative dimension that makes it different from foreign policy as it is conventionally understood; the extent to which policy-making in the domain has developed beyond intergovernmental cooperation and, interlinked; how EU foreign and security policy integration and its characteristics can be explained. In doing this, the book also addresses a fourth contemporary scholarly debate linked to if and how the EU is affected by crisis. By focusing on maritime security policies the book also adds to the international relations literature more broadly. This book is an invaluable resource for scholars, students and practitioners interested in EU foreign and security policy, European and global maritime security issues, EU integration, EU crisis and international relations. Marianne Riddervold is an Associate Professor at Inland Norway University of applied sciences, a Senior fellow at UC Berkeley Institute of European Studies and a Guest Researcher at ARENA - Centre for European Studies at the University of Oslo.

Analysing some 30 policy decisions across three countries and five decades, Sieglinde Gstohl considers why some countries continue to be 'reluctant Europeans' and offers insights into the problems associated with integration in an enlarging EU.

The emergence of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in the last two-thirds of the 1990s and continuing into the new century, has been a complex process intertwining politics, economics, national cultures, and numerous institutions. This book provides an essential background for understanding how security issues as between NATO and the European Union are being posed for the early part of the 21st century, including the new circumstances following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001. This study should be of interest to those interested in the evolution of U.S.-European relations, especially in, but not limited to, the security field; the development of institutional relationships; and key choices that lie ahead in regard to these critical arrangements.

This unique book looks at the impact of European integration - and, in particular, the institutional challenges it involves - from the perspective of the smaller member states.

Why has Iceland not sought membership of the European Union? This unique volume uses the case study of Iceland - the only Nordic state to have never applied for EU membership - to explore the complex attitudes of small states to European intergration and provide a new theoretical approach for understanding such relationships. The contributors explain why the Icelandic political elite has been relunctant to participate in European integration. In this context, they analyse the influence that Iceland's special relationship with the US and the fisheries sector have had on their dealings with the EU. Also considered are 'new' variables, such as national administrative characteristics and particular features of the domestic arena of the political elite, as well as the elite's perception of international relations and its political discourse concerning independence and sovereignty. Iceland and European Integration will appeal to all those interested in European integration and the international relations of small states