The Study Of The Nordic Regional International Society

Regionalization and globalization are the two major themes of international political research after the Second World War.In the latter part of the Cold War,and especially after the disintegration of the Soviet Union,rapid development was achieved.The object of regionalization research mainly focuses on the EU,ASEAN,APEC,and so on,and it uses more regionalist perspectives.This article attempts to examine the process of regional cooperation in the Nordic region from the perspective of international social theory.As for the research object,the Nordic region is one of the supporting actors in international politics and has long been ignored by people.However,in fact,the Nordic region is known for its high economic prosperity,comprehensive social welfare,and good international image.It can be used as a template for regional society.As for the perspective of research,this article adopts the international social theory of the English School.The English school's research on the international society includes two levels:the global international society and the regional international society.However,for a long time,the English School only paid attention to the research of the global international society,and neglected the research of regional international society.Buzan believes that the traditional English school is too globalistic and that the international society does not necessarily mean that it is global.He called for the study of the international society at the regional level because the global international society is composed of various regional international societies.Based on the theoretical basis of the international society theory of the British school,this paper extracts the conditions for the formation of regional international society from the traditional international society theory and integrates it into an analytical framework.Through the study of the Nordic international society,it provides case support for the global international society theory to turn to regional level research.Based on the international society theory of the traditional English school,we have extracted three dimensions from which we can form the conditions for regional international society.These three dimensions are:common international identity;common regional interests;common regional systems.We believe that a common international identity is the basis for the formation of a regional international society.The common interests of the region are the motive force for the regional international society,and it is also its pursuit goal.The regional common institution is the institutional guarantee for forming the regional international society.What needs to be explained here is that under the dimension of common international identity,there are four components:common culture,common values,common identity,and common foreign policy.Common culture and common values provide cultural concepts and nutrition within the region and shape the internal identity of the region;while the common foreign policy is the overall recognition of the region through the "other"in the world,for the region to shape the regional common identity in international politics.From the first dimension,the Nordic countries are linguistically similar,religious beliefs in Lutheranism,and the history of the common Vikings have led to the formation of a common culture among them;in terms of values,universalism and egalitarianism are deeply rooted in people's minds;in terms of identity,Scandinavianism has brought a consistent identity to Scandinavian identity;in terms of foreign policy,the Nordic countries have always upheld the values of peace and justice and actively assisted third world countries.In the second dimension,the common interests of the Nordic countries reflect all aspects of social and economic life,including social welfare,diplomacy,and environmental protection,and even reflect the issue of opening and protecting the Arctic.The Nordic countries'cooperation in various fields is based on the common regional interests.From the perspective of the Nordic countries,they are not only different from Europe but also better than Europe.They share the common interests of special regions different from Europe and the world.From the third dimension,in the long-term exchanges and interactions of the Nordic countries,a large number of agreements,norms and institutions are scattered in various fields of cooperation.Among them,the most notable is the Nordic Council.Under the framework of the Nordic Council,countries coordinate their policies and effectively promote the prosperity and development of all regional undertakings.Based on the above three dimensions of analysis,we believe that there is a mature regional international society in the Nordic region.At the end of this article,we briefly explored the significance of the regional international society to international politics,and made a simple comparison between the Nordic international society and the European Union's international society.In addition,the study of the Nordic international society has also brought inspiration to the formation of the international society in Northeast Asia.