Due to its tradition of multiform cooperation, Northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Island, Norway and Sweden) is generally seen as a united and homogenous space. This image must not hide the weakness of Nordic cooperation in the strategic field. Indeed, beyond their attempts to overshoot, after the Cold War, the «Northern balance», by furthering their strategic and defence cooperation, Nordic countries remain quite divided on a strategic point of view, as their disagreements towards the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan and in Iraq tend to show. This situation, which shakes the theses predicting the emergence of a global order based on cooperation, shows how much countries tend to favor their national interests over regional integration. – Summary AFRI-2005