A reluctant European: How Norway responds to the EU's quest for strategic autonomy

Abstract

The development of the EU as an actor in the field of security and defence is a challenge for Norway. Being a NATO member, but outside the EU, Norway offers an interesting case study of how a non-member adapts to the growing importance of the EU in security and defence affairs. The war in Ukraine has made the issue even more interesting. The article illustrates and explains two phenomena: how a country outside the EU perceives this development and how it responds to the Union’s new status. The article does this by looking into not only Norwegian policy documents on how the country is adapting to the EU’s new role, but also how the country’s authorities and defence industry have been setting strategy with regard to it. The response from and strategy taken by Kongsberg Defence and Aerospace AS, the largest Norwegian defence firm, regarding this new role for the EU is taken as a case in point.