First of all, I would like
to thank the Anglo-Danish Society for the decision to support my research with
a scholarship award in 2009-10. It is always nice to receive recognition from
your academic peers, but it is even more gratifying to know that a lay audience
also places value in your research and can appreciate its potential.
Furthermore, the scholarship was crucial to seeing me financially through the
final year of taxing work. My PhD thesis is now ready for submission and I am
due to defend it in November.
The thesis explores the
emergence of a Scandinavian international society over a 200-year period, characterised by a
certain interpretation of a number of international social institutions such as
dynasticism, diplomacy, nationalism, trade, war and the welfare state. In broad
terms it represents three contributions to the established research agenda.
First, it provides a more nuanced and detailed picture of the foundation for
what some have termed ‘The Nordic Peace’; in other words, the reasons why the
Nordic countries have not fought wars against each other for over 200 years.
Second, it provides a provocative perspective on the quintessential debate
about whether it is possible to create a security community in the Baltic Sea
Region. Contrary to the research stemming from various peace research
institutes in the Nordic countries, it does not focus on the possibility of
establishing a security community, but rather on the conscious Nordic attempt
to promote this agenda in the Baltic States. Finally, it marks out the Nordic
welfare state as the crucial political institution that sets Scandinavia
apart from the broader global international society and which conditions local
practices of diplomacy, trade and war etc.
This last year of work has
primarily been dedicated to writing up and to disseminating the results. With
respect to the former, I completed the
two final chapters and spent the past couple of months revising the first
draft. With respect to the latter, I have presented my work in research
seminars at LSE and Stanford University and have presented a paper at the
International Studies Association’s 2010 Annual Convention in New Orleans. This paper is also due to be
presented at the ECPR Pan-European International Relations conference in Stockholm in September.
In addition to this, the thesis is currently under review for book publication
with a major academic publisher and four articles derived from it have been
sent to specialist journals.
It has been essential to the success of
this project to be based at LSE and under the masterful supervision of
Professor Barry Buzan. Without him and this institution I am sure that the end
product would have looked much different. Being a part of the wider International
Relations research community in London
has also provided me with experience and connections that would have taken many
more years to accrue had I been based at a Danish university. In sum, thank you
for supporting my research and thank you for supporting this great endeavour
which is the intellectual exchange between Denmark and the UK.
Sincerely,
Laust Schouenborg
