Norway's flawed nordområdene policy

This study examines what happened to Norway’s nordområdepolitikk, or High North policy, erstwhile a targeted effort to address foreign and security policy challenges in Norway’s immediate neighbouring northern areas. It finds that the current High North policy, after rounds of extensive revision, has become less suited to cope with Norway’s pressing security challenges in the said areas. Over the years, the Norwegian High North policy has become so diluted and all-including that it encompasses virtually anything and everything with a northern dimension, including regional development and industrial policies, to the neglect of foreign and security policy considerations. The High North initiatives have, at best, gradually transformed into a broad policy coordination effort, but without clear or prioritised policy objectives. Faced with a number of weighty security challenges in its immediate neighbouring northern areas, Norway is currently guided by a policy that has metamorphosed into a distraction. A High North white paper about everything resembles a white paper about nothing.