Denmark’s Choices between the US and the EU after 2001

Resumo

The article asks whether it is generally correct that Denmark has followed the US more than the EU in foreign and security policy after 2001 and if this is so why? The article first looks at the policy level and attempts to map out how and whether Danish policies are conducted with the EU and the US respectively. It then presents different ways of explaining why a country chooses the balance that it does between the EU and the US. Following on from this, one particular approach (constructivism/poststructuralism) is applied in order to attempt to provide an understanding of the balance struck between the EU and the US in Danish foreign policy. It is concluded that Danish foreign policy is not only conducted with the US let alone with the US as the most important partner across áreas of Danish foreign policy. The US/ NATO is the most important partner on hard security issues. And there is ad hoc foreign policy cooperation with the US on selected foreign policy issues. But in soft security and in foreign policy generally, the EU is the most common partner for Denmark – in spite of the Danish exemptions.