Denmark and NATO 1948-1987

Has a fundamental change taken place in Danish security policy in the course of the 1980’s? That may be the case according to the author, who is analysing various Danish foreign policy “games” in the post-war period: the foreign policy, the relationship to the Russians and the domestic influence on foreign policy. Until around 1980 it was still possible to classify Denmark as a loyal NATO ally. This has changed, according to Nikolaj Petersen, mainly because of domestic considerations in the wake of the breakdown of the traditional consensus coalition in the early 198Os

Absolut idealisme – et glemt potentiale?

Physicalism is the most widely accepted metaphysical view today. The thesis of physicalism, however, seems unable to adequately explain the existence and nature of consciousness. Moreover, the thesis is not itself a scientific finding but must be characterized as a metaphysical assumption. Hence, there are strong reasons to explore alternatives to the physicalist view. While metaphysical theses based on classic idealistic views like subjective or absolute idealism have been largely absent from the philosophical debate during most of the 20th century, in the last few decades theses of this kind have been advocated, most notably by John Foster and Timothy Sprigge. Russell’s and Moore’s influential refutations of idealism have been severely questioned by recent scholarship, which means that conventional arguments against absolute idealism appear to be significantly less well-founded than what is usually assumed. With Sprigge’s panpsychistic absolute idealistic metaphysical system as the basis and by incorporating key elements in Foster’s thinking, the present paper outlines an idealistic thesis which, it is argued, first of all escapes the problem of consciousness inherent in physicalism and secondly counters important arguments raised against Sprigge’s views, including the question of personal identity and the problem of the one and the many. In addition, this thesis can be seen as naturalistic in a broad sense, thereby potentially being of existential relevance also within the framework of modernity. Thus, it is the aim of the present paper to argue – although sketchily – that despite its controversial character in the light of contemporary mainstream views, panpsychistic absolute idealism demonstrates a significant explanatory power and is therefore of philosophical interest as a subject for further study

Arktisk politik og regimedannelse i 2010'erne

Recent developments have placed the High North on the international agenda. These include global warming, the prospects of major oil and gas finds, the opening of the Arctic Ocean to international shipping and the ongoing partition of its outer continental shelf between the five coastal states. In the so-called Ilulissat Declaration of 2008 these "Arctic Five" promised to play according to the UNCLOS rules and to shoulder their responsibility as coastal states. Despite this, the future may see both cooperation and conflict in the Arctic. The aim of the article is to discuss the possibilities of cooperative schemes, regimes, to regulate the problems which increasing shipping and extraction industries and fisheries may cause. First, a survey of future Arctic actors and fora is presented. While Arctic politics isstill dominated by the eight members of the Arctic Council, other actors, most clearly China, South Korea, Japan and the European Commission, are pressuring for influence. Furthermore, the Arctic Council is pressured by the "Arctic Five" and has reacted by establishing a secretariat and by adopting its first binding decision, anagreement on cooperation in search and rescue operations. Other relevant fora are the IMO, the WMO and UNCLOS. Next, an inventory of future "tasks" facing the Arctic nations is presented. They include defence tasks, sovereignty tasks, national authority tasks, and tasks, which can only (or best) be handled in regimes. Such regimes seem most needed with respect to international shipping. In the final section the discussion on possible regimes gets more concrete. Many tasks can best be handled by the IMO, but the Arctic Council, the WMO and UNCLOS have also roles to play. In particular, the five Arctic costal states have acrucial role as providers of specific regime services. Without their participation Arctic regime-formation is a non-starter

Arktisk opvarmning og dansk sikkerhedspolitik

Nikolaj Petersen om nødvendigheden af et internationalt samarbejde til at håndtere klimakrisen i Arktis.&nbsp

Kampen om Den Kolde Krig i dansk politik og forskning

Struggle Over the Cold War in Danish Politics and ResearchThe Cold War has cast a long shadow in Danish politics and historical research. In a process dominated over the past decade by conservative parties the country’s Cold War politics have been drawn into a present-day, socially broader conflict of values through direct political support for a particular right-wing, revisionist history. The present article, firstly, discusses two aspects of this rightist revisionism: as an ideology, whose chief protagonist has been Anders Fogh Rasmussen, until recently the Prime Minister of Denmark; and as a research programme for a network centred around Bent Jensen, a prominent professor of history. This is followed by a historical analysis of the concrete political initiatives taken to promote research on and presentation of the history of the Cold War, culminating in the establishment of the pro tem Centre for Cold War Research. The article concludes with a discussion of the pros and cons of overly sensitive political interest in Cold War research and its results.Translated by Michael Wolf

Lad dine elever skabe historie

Historiebevidsthed er et kernebegreb i historiefaget anno 2015, men er ofte meget svært at håndtere i en undervisningssituation. Det kan ofte blive meget abstrakt, når man forsøger at give sine elever en forståelse af, at de selv og alle andre mennesker både er historieskabte og medskabere af historie. I denne artikel giver forfatteren et bud på begreber og redskaber, der kan gøre arbejdet med historiebevidsthed lettere at gå til, og peger på et nyt digitalt læremiddel, der baserer sig på netop denne tænkning, nemlig Den Sønderjyske Historiekanon

History Makers - elever skaber historiske monumenter

Hvordan kan man få elever til at reflektere over deres egen rolle som medskabere af historie? Kan en designproces, hvor elever skaber historiske monumenter ved hjælp af digitale fabrikationsteknologier bidrage til denne refleksion? I det ambitiøse pilotprojekt ”History Makers” har undervisere fra Vejle samlet værdifuld erfaring med at sammentænke FabLab-teknologi, designtænkning og historieundervisning