Kastelholm Talks 2014: Norden and Peace
On 28 March 2014, the first Kastelholm talks were arranged, i.e. discussions about peace under the auspices of President Halonen, at the Kastelholm Castle on Åland. The Panel of the first talk consisted of Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, the Foreign Minister of Finland, Ms. Britt Bohlin, the Director of the Nordic Council, Mr. Hans Wallmark, Swedish Member of Parliament and Vice-President of the Nordic Council as well as Ms. Aud Lise Norheim, Director General at the Department for UN, Peace and Humanitarian Affairs at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Norway. The Peace Institute Director Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark was the moderator of the talks. The panelists at Kastelholm highlighted that there are many reasons to consider Norden a zone of peace and that there is international interest in the experiences of the Nordic countries. At the same time, there may be a risk of being viewed as self-righteous, which is why it is important to critically assess the experiences and to promote dialogue rather than a missionary attitude in international relations. The theme for 2014 was “Norden and peace” and took as vantage point that the Nordic countries have experiences of conflict resolution […]