Page 33 - Norwegian Special Report

Reshaping Norwegian Defense

And as an alliance, NATO demonstrated its ability to rapidly adjust as well as provide reassurance to our
Eastern allies.

I won’t take up your time by telling you a story you all know. But I want to point out that this was a dramatic
change by way of external developments. Something that happened outside of our countries, but with great
implications for our countries.

And by “our countries” I mean the transatlantic alliance and the Nordics.
Brexit and the US election, however, happened at home. Inside our own house, so to speak. The British people
voted. The American people voted. And the results took many of us by surprise.

Brexit and the US election were two very different things, and I think we should be careful to compare them
as such. But one thing they had in common is that they revealed a significant level of frustration and discontent
amongst a lot of people. And that is something we’re seeing not only in the UK and the US, but in many
European countries.

If I am to suggest common denominators between Crimea, Brexit and the US elections concerning security in
Northern Europe, it must be this:

They were all major wake-up calls, albeit for different reasons.
They have all introduced uncertainty at some level.

And they have all set in motion change and developments that we do not know the extent of.

Ladies and gentlemen, we find ourselves in a time of political, economic and social disruption.

The world, as we have known it for decades, is changing. And it’s changing rapidly.

In 1992, the American political scientist and author, Francis Fukuyama, published the book The End of History
and the Last Man. It was an unusually definitive book in that it suggested that the Western liberal democracy
represented the endpoint of mankind’s ideological evolution - and thus the final form of human government.

While he recognized that liberal democracies may suffer temporary setbacks, he argued that this is basically
as good as it gets; This is the best we can do, and there can be no progression from liberal democracy to an
alternative, better system.
The book was written in an optimistic time of change. The Berlin wall had fallen, the Soviet Union had
collapsed, the Cold War was over and a warm wind of optimism swept across Europe.

I think it’s safe to say that the weather has changed.

Fukuyama may be right; Perhaps the liberal democracy, with all its dilemmas and compromises, is the best
form of government we are capable of designing. After all, it has enabled economic growth, prosperity,
peace and stability between nations for decades.

But it seems we may have arrived at a time in history where the liberal democracy, as we know it, is facing
one of its most serious challenges to date.

The very framework of a stable Europe and transatlantic relationship is under pressure.

Right-wing populism is on the rise in many countries, paving the way for different forms of nationalism.

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