What Now, Norwegian Defence Industry? Instrumental and Institutional Answers to the EU's New Security and Defence Policies

The article discusses the EU’s new defence package with emphasis on CARD (Coordinated Annual Review on Defence), PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) and EDF (European Defence Fund). The aim is to strengthen the EU as a security actor and encourage strategic autonomy. This package challenges Norwegian security-, defence-, and defence industrial policies. The research questions are: What consequences will these EU-initiatives have for Norwegian defence industry- and defence research policy? How will the authorities (Ministry of Defence; MoD) act to maintain a national defence industry? We apply instrumental and institutional theories. Instrumental theories expect rational actions in accordance with logic of consequences. Institutional theories expect appropriate actions in line with established culture and expectations in their surroundings. The EU’s security and defence policy becomes more similar with other fields of EU policies. Therefore, a multilevel governance approach is relevant. Our interviews with representatives for Norwegian authorities and defence industry tell that they have fragmented knowledge and expectations about the significance of the defence package. We conclude that the authorities act instrumentally, but lack of a comprehensive understanding makes it difficult to answer rationally. The authorities therefore also act according to a cultural perspective.