When The Hell Am I? Traveling in the Late Pandemic

 This title refers to two things--that Denmark went back to standard time from daylights saving while I slept (and I managed to sleep) and Denmark is considering itself to be post-pandemic.  I arrived yesterday morning to a country that had mask wearing at the airport .... and nowhere else.  It was a very abrupt shift from twenty months of pandemic life.  And, damn, it feels pretty good if still quite strange.

I am here for my first out of body Ottawa workshop--a twice or thrice delayed project on military politics.  The core idea here is that it has been long argued that in democracies, the militaries have no role in politics, but the reality is that whenever there are choices to be made, there are politics.  So, the military always has some kind of politics, whether that is battling for budgets or deciding how to cooperate with other actors in "whole of government" efforts.  My role here is to talk about military politics in multilateral efforts.  Building/borrowing from the NATO book, the basic idea is that whenever units are sent abroad, their commanders face multiple masters--the home chain of command and the bosses of the multilateral effort.  With two bosses come conflicting demands--adjudicating that requires politics--making decisions that have outcomes for the various collectives.  

Because I missed a recent civ-mil conference, I really wanted to participate in this workshop.  I get to see some of the sharp folks/friends who do civ-mil stuff and get to eat/drink with them.  Last night's dinner was so terrific as we exchanged stories of pandemic teaching and research, catching up on their various lives, and sharing older stories of the pre-pandemic.  It just felt so good.  And my FOMO got reduced by 27.5%.   Oh, and the food and drink were good, too.  

I walked around yesterday after I arrived--my room was not ready--with Chris Ankersen, a prof from NYU.  We walked north along the waterfront (ok, a waterfront, as there is a lot of water in Copenhagen), with both old and new ships, past the famous Little Mermaid statue, the citadel, some of the royal buildings, and the like.  It was good post-flight fresh air, sun (really!), exercise, and chatting.  

 

 

 

 

 

I actually managed to sleep with only one interruption.  I often can't sleep past 3:30 am in Europe on the first night or two, but managed to do so.  I slept so late I thought I missed the hotel breakfast, but it went long plus the change in daylight savings time meant I didn't sleep that late.  It was bustling, and, yes, hotel breakfast buffets are back.  Again, am I livingin the pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic, or post-pandemic?  Since Canada is still mid-pandemic, one of my afternoon activities will be finding a PCR test place for my flight back in 72ish hours.  After that, the gang goes to Tivoli--one of the very first amusement parks in the world--which will be Halloween-themed.  Since it is so old, the ghosts there may be real?

While eating breakfast,
I noticed I was being watched

 

 

I am off to bike in the mist to work off the stuff I ate last night. 

Denmark Falls Short

I have been a big fan of Denmark as a result of the NATO book.  The Danes did more with what they have than any other country, served in the North as well as the South (see chapter six).  Their former Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen was a very good, vocal Secretary General of NATO.

Anyhow, it is incredibly disappointing to see that Denmark is thinking of funding its refugee expenses via the jewelry and cash that could be seized from the refugees.  This is awful, awful, awful.  The image that comes up, of course, are the piles of assets seized from Jews and others sent to Nazi concentration camps. 

This is quite a betrayal of history as the Danes did an outstanding job of protecting their Jewish population during the war. 

Of course, this should not be that surprising given the rise of xenophobia in Denmark.  Indeed, one of the key bits to the Danish story for the Afghanistan mission was that the minority coalition had to rely on the Danish People's Party for support, and the DPP is very much a xenophobic party.  What has changed since we wrote the book is that the DPP finished with the second highest number of votes and of seats, and mostly at the expense of the Liberal Party (right of center). 

When xenophobes govern, they make awful laws.  The rise of the far right in Europe has long been a concern, but it has gotten far worse in the past few years.  The good news out of France, that the National Front lost in the most recent elections, is some consolation.  But then again, with the outbidding in the GOP, Americans cannot be smug about any of this.  

Dumb Lede Du Jour

How do they say du jour in Danish?

I ask because this story's headline is dumb on stilts.  Denmark is leaving Afghanistan early?  Yes, its troops are coming home earlier than planned but summer of 2014 is not early compared to nearly everyone else.

The Dutch withdrew from combat in 2010, the Canadians withdrew from combat in 2011. These folks were the early departers.  A quick look at the NATO placemat that

• New Zealand has essentially left (2 out of previous commitment of 200--and an active 200 they were--see the book's chapter seven).
• France is down to 200 or so, and that will be zero soon enough.
• Australia is similar, down significantly and out soon.

Anyhow, I get uppity when folks say bad things about the Danish in particular since they sacrificed more than any other country, pretty much, if one factors in the size of the country's population or the size of the contingent.

Making Nice with the Vikings

This article indicates that Canada and Denmark may be settling their dispute over Hans Island, which is a random small bit of land between Greenland and Canada.  Arctic sovereignty may have some substance to it, but I remain a skeptic, thinking that it is important in Canada because of nationalism and little else. 

Yes, there are minerals to be divided, but that is not new.  The US and Canada can resolve where to draw the line so that both can have access to the hard to reach oil/gas/whatever.  Russia is making big claims, but cannot do much about them.  The big issue divided the US and Canada is over the Northwest Passage. The US likes to drive its ships through any strait, asserting its rights under the law of the sea.  Canada considers the passage to be its own territory.  Some would argue that Canada should side with Russia against the US, but that is foolishness of the highest order. 

Canad and the US have worked out all kinds of deals in the past, including shared defense of North American airspace (NORAD).  Right now, a key obstacle has been Canadian nationalism, with Harper playing it up the issue of arctic sovereignty.  The good news, as the article mentions, is that majority government in Canada means that Harper can make a deal with the Danes that will not matter in a few years when the next election occurs.  Plus it is hard to believe the pacifist NDP could outbid the Conservatives on belligerence.  The Liberals also cannot credibly posture as being more hostile.

There are lots of good reasons for the Canadians and Danes to make a deal now, given how much they have in common and given how little Hans Island matters in the broader scheme of things.  The linked article covers the bases pretty well.

Appropriate Rescue Du Jour

There is a lot to like about the rescue of the two individuals from the Somali pirates, but I find it especially cool that the SEALs rescued a Dane along with an American.  The Danes have been one of the most supportive allies of the US in Afghanistan and then in Libya.  In Afghanistan, the Danes have been willing to fight in the very hardest parts of the country--the green zone of Helmand (where the poppies grow best)--taking more casualties per troop deployed than any other country.  In Libya, the Danes dedicated a huge hunk of their air force to the bombing campaign.

Of course, the fact that Denmark's former Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is the Secretary-General of NATO might have something to do with it.*  Anyway, anything the US can do to help out the Danes is a good thing--rescuing one of their citizens is even better than rescuing a boat full of Iranian sailors.

* The fact that I got heaps of help from the Danish government and scholars during my research on NATO and Afghanistan has almost nothing to do with my positive attitude towards the Danes.  Ok, maybe it does.  Then again, I got heaps of help and great access in every country I visited [I didn't visit Italy since the help was not forthcoming].

Copenhagen, Day 2

Spent my second day and my last full day of tourism with a bit of history.  First, I walked around and in Rosenborg Slot and Kongens Have.  This is where the Royal types used to hang out.  The castle was pretty interesting as were the gardens.  Plus another nice moat  These Danes know their moats.  If I have get a Spew Mansion, I will hire Danes to do the moat. 

Then I went to the Carlsberg Brewery.  They had a nice visitor's area/museum dedicated to beer and the company.  Very interesting stuff.  And you get two beers at the end of the tour.  Excellent. 

Taking a break now to let my feet dry, and then more of the city.

One bit of frustration--my cell apparently is locked so new SIM card does not work.  Other than that and the wet clothes, things are alright here in southern Scandinavia.

Part 2 abridged due to rain.  Will have some other time this week to see stuff, but now time to prep for interviews.

Copenhagen, Day 1

Aside from getting in three hours or so late thanks to a broken plane in Newark (only a fuel leak!?), things went well today.

Of course, I realized quickly that I probably should not really talk about my research to the taxi driver if he is from Pakistan.  Led to a 15 minute conversation about 9/11.  Ug.  But he was nice enough.

What have I learned about Copenhagen thus far and the Danes?

1. The city is like Shrek and onions--it has many layers.  The current building holding the parliament sits on top of pretty much every previous construction on that site since the 1100's!  Really.  So, one of the tourist sites are the "ruins" underneath the government center (Christianborg), which contains walls and bricks and wells from the previous forts/castles/etc.  It turns out that one of the groups acting the early Danes was the Hanseatic League.  Thanks to Hendrik Spruyt, I knew who these guys were.  On the other hand, the Danes kept burning their own palaces down through bad design.
2. An interesting contrast with Australia.  In Syndey, it was hard to walk around the harborfront without bumping into seven weddings.  Thus far, I have seen more weddings and wedding pictures near the Kastellet (former fortress, still rocks the widest moat I have ever seen).  What can be over-read into this?  That the viking blood of the past means that they associate marriage with defense and conquest?  Surely not.  Just a pretty area of the city, but Copenhagen has plenty of those.
3. The Danes are not as uniformly blond as one might expect, but still pretty darn blond.  They are not nearly as fit as residents of Oslo, although they seem to be less obese than North Americans (not that difficult a trick).  What was surprising to me, given all of their hoopla about Muslims, is how few I have seen thus far, compared to how many head-scarved women I see in Montreal.
4. The 7/11's are the busiest stores, which was a problem for me since they might have sim cards so that I can use my Canadian phone with a Danish number and less $$$.  But that might just have been because of the huge crowd that showed up for some sort of gay rights/pride event.  It was good to see Batman and Robin show up, but it led me to wonder which version of B&R was more homoerotic--the original TV show or the George Clooney/Chris O'Donnell version?
5. I do wonder about the competitiveness of Danish Dairy as both Ben and Jerry's and Cold Stone Creamery have outlets here.  
6. The Wire has absolutely re-wired my brain.  I am in towards the end of the second season (which rocks, despite some thinking it is one of the weaker ones--all I have to say is Omar in court) and now when I see a port, I think about cans being diverted.  
7. Oh, and I just noticed that my very basic hotel room has a bottle opener attached to the desk in the most obvious way possible--more than any other hotel room I can remember.   Hmmmmm.

I have one more day on my own to overcome jet lag and get the lay of the land here (which is flat--must find one of those free bikes) and then things get busy quickly.  It should be an interesting week.