Vaccine Hunting: Balancing Strategic Independence, Cooperation and Multilateral Obligations in Scandinavian COVID‐19 Vaccine Diplomacy

ABSTRACT How do states navigate the balance between multilateral obligations, bilateral cooperation and strategic independence during global crises? This article provides an in‐depth empirical analysis of the diplomatic efforts deployed by Denmark and Norway to secure vaccine access during the COVID‐19 pandemic. The paper explores how these countries pursued multiple procurement pathways—bilateral negotiations, ad hoc coalitions, regional and global initiatives—and analyses how they mobilized different policy options as the crisis unfolded. Despite their institutional and economic similarities, the two countries' different relationship with the European Union—through which they both ultimately procured vaccines—provides insight into how political alliances shape state agency in times of crisis. The paper challenges the conventional understanding of ‘vaccine diplomacy’ as the use of vaccines by great powers to advance geopolitical or diplomatic interests, demonstrating that the concept also helps understand countries' agency to secure vaccines. For Norway and Denmark, vaccine diplomacy involved multilevel and multi‐stakeholder diplomatic engagement; strategic efforts to build their international credibility; and domestic public diplomacy to project government responsiveness. In a context of crisis and uncertainty, their vaccine diplomacy was characterized by experimentation, difficult trade‐offs between multilateral obligations and domestic pressures, and limited democratic oversight.