H. Arnold Barton investigates Norwegian political and cultural influences in Sweden during the period of the Swedish-Norwegian dynastic union from 1814 to 1905. After a proud medieval past, Norway had come under the Danish crown in the fourteenth century and had been reduced to virtually a Danish province by the sixteenth. In 1814 Denmark relinquished Norway, which became a separate kingdom, dynastically united with Sweden with its own constitutional government. Disputes during the next ninety-one years caused Norway unilaterally to dissolve the tie in 1905. Barton is the first historian to look beyond the cultural conflicts and examine the impact of the union on internal developments, particularly in Sweden. Prior to 1814, Norway, unlike Sweden, had no constitution and only the rudiments of higher culture, yet paradoxically, Norway exerted a greater direct influence on Sweden. Reflecting a society lacking a native nobility, Norway's 1814 constitution was - with the exception of that of the United States - the most democratic in the world. It became the guiding star of Swedish liberals and radicals striving to reform the antiquated system of representation in their parliament. Norway's cultural void was filled with a stellar array of artists, writers, and musicians, led by Bjoornsjerne Boornson, Henrik Ibsen, and Edvard Grieg. From the 1850s through the late 1880s, this wave of Norwegian creativity had an immense impact on literature, art, and music in Sweden. By the 1880s, however, August Strindberg led a revolt against an exaggerated ""Norvegomania"" in Sweden. Barton sees this reaction as a fundamental inspiration to Sweden's intense search for its own cultural character in the highly creative Swedish National Romanticism of the 1890s and early twentieth century.

The Nordic Region 2030: The five Nordic countries have formed a federal political entity - the United Nordic Federation. The new federation, with its joint constitution, joint government and population of 25 million, is a brand-new and major player on the European stage - well it would be if the countries have the courage to make it happen. The controversial historian Gunnar Wetterberg provides objective and detailed arguments for a new Nordic federation. A real federation, with responsibility for foreign and defence policy, the economic framework and all of the key legislative areas, from immigration to social policy. Last year, Wetterberg breathed new life into the debate about the rebirth of the Kalmar Union. The emotional, hard-hitting debate resonated all the way to Germany, Spain and Italy. He now presents his vision of the United Nordic Federation in theNordic Council and Nordic Council of Ministers' Yearbook 2010. His highly controversial proposal is expected to reignite the debate in all five of the Nordic countries.

Karl Nordlund's historical book "The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis" looks at the 1905 political crisis that led to the dissolution of the 'United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway' on 26 October 1905. On that date, King Oscar II renounced his claim to the Norwegian throne, effectively dissolving the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and this event was swiftly followed, on 18 November, by the accession to the Norwegian throne of Prince Carl of Denmark, taking the name of Haakon VII. Nordlund traces back the significant events in Swedish and Norwegian history that unfolded, culminating in the breakup of the two neighboring European nations.

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 volume presents a comprehensive exposition of both the prehistory and medieval history of the whole of Scandinavia. The first part of the volume surveys the prehistoric and historic Scandinavian landscape and its natural resources, and tells how man took possession of this landscape, adapting culturally to changing natural conditions and developing various types of community throughout the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages. The rest - and most substantial part of the volume - deals with the history of Scandinavia from the Viking Age to the end of the Scandinavian Middle Ages (c. 1520). The external Viking expansion opened Scandinavia to European influence to a hitherto unknown degree. A Christian church organisation was established, the first towns came into being, and the unification of the three medieval kingdoms of Scandinavia began, coinciding with the formation of the unique Icelandic 'Free State'.

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.