Kristine K. N. Midtgaard:
Danish United Nations Policy 1949-65: the Offensive Power Strategy of the Small State of Denmark

The article analyses Denmark's United Nations policy as it evolved in the context of Cold War bipolarity and the Danish membership of the NATO alliance. First, it outlines the Danish UN vision of a qualitative change in the international system. International law and collective security should replace power policy and hence increase smal state security and influence. Second, it demonstrates how a double time perspective and an idea of duality, ie. interdependence between the UN and NATO were constitutive elements in Danish security political thinking. Third, it analyses Denmark's policy in the UN. The conclusion is that this was characterized by both an adaption to NATO policy and an independent policy aimed at increasing detente and eventually a system of international law. Considered against the duality in Danish security political thinking, her adaption to NATO in the UN was not in contradiction but in harmony with the vision of international law. Considered within an analytical framework of a broad concept of power it is argued that Denmark's UN policy in the midst of Cold War bipolarity and alliance membership constituted an offensive power strategy of a small state.