Emergency Management in Scandinavia: Lessons Learned At Home and Abroad Joanne Stone Wyman, Ph. D. 1 Introduction

Despite the many changes that have transpired in emergency management in Scandinavia over the past few decades, new threats keep emerging as do new consequences of current threats. Some of the institutional challenges Denmark, Norway, and Sweden are facing include ones that are familiar to the U.S., such as civilian-military cooperation and public-private sector partnerships for preparedness and response. Another challenge, rooted in deep-seated social behavior, is to recognize, accept, and act on the fact that certain types of disasters are, in fact, avoidable through decisions on where, when, and how to site, construct, and carry out certain activities. In seismically active areas, for instance, it is only a matter of time until an earthquake occurs. Limiting land uses in such areas, or in other high risk areas such as those prone to flooding and landslides, would reduce society’s vulnerability and boost its robustness.

Opportunity sometimes may accompany new risks and vulnerabilities. Such appears to be the case with respect to climate change. Sweden, for instance, has catalogued not only the risks climate change poses but also the opportunities in terms of new land use patterns, increased agricultural production, and lower energy demand.

One of the most fruitful avenues of opportunity for all three Scandinavian countries is their increasing participation in multilateral organizations that are addressing disaster reduction and stronger emergency management. As members of the EU, for instance, Denmark and Sweden participate in mutual aid agreements as well as ongoing crisis management initiatives. Norway, through its membership in the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which has an agreement with the EU, can request aid as it did to fight the 2008 forest fires Denmark and Norway are both members of NATO, which has a number of civil emergency management programs. All three countries belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Nordic Council, among other organizations.

Despite dramatic strengthening of emergency management in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, significant challenges remain. In part, this reflects the ever-changing and sometimes unpredictable nature of the risk and vulnerability landscape. For all three countries, crises abroad and international disaster reduction initiatives have been every bit as important as domestic incidents in shaping their emergency management policies, institutions, and practices. Recognizing the impossibility of imagining every possible type of crisis that may arise, the Scandinavian countries are focused on creating and sustaining emergency management institutions that have sufficient capability and capacity to adapt quickly to the unexpected.

Commission of Inquiry. 2001. Lillestrøm-Ulykken. 5. April 2000 (NOU 2001: 09 Summary in English)