The return of the Nordic voice at the United Nations

Since the mid-2010s, the Nordic voice at the United Nations has grown louder, reversing a period of relative quiescence over the previous two decades. Nordic diplomats, often joined by Baltic diplomats, are issuing more joint statements than ever before, both in New York and in the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The return of the Nordic voice at the United Nations (UN) is, fittingly, well explained through the insights contributed by Nordic International Relations in the literatures on communities of practice and ontological security, much of which has been published in Cooperation and Conflict over its 60-year history. This article contributes to the special issue by empirically demonstrating changes in the practices of Nordic and Baltic diplomats and explaining these changes through insights derived from studies of ontological security. Drawing on semi-structured interviews and documentary analysis, it argues that changes in Nordic diplomatic practice are a response to ontological insecurity arising from the crisis of multilateralism within and outside the European Union (EU) which threatened the Nordic identity as champions of UN multilateralism. Nordic and Baltic diplomats have responded by voicing their own distinctive identity and upholding the Nordic narrative via group statements within the UN.