I don’t think I’ve mentioned the guest speakers that DIS gets to come speak to the students before but I feel really lucky that we have the opportunity to hear such important people speak on current issues. For instance, a few weeks ago the US Ambassador to Denmark came to the school and spoke on diplomacy and the way the US is perceived abroad. I actually found his lecture fascinating and it was just really cool that we got to meet and speak with him and listen to what he had to say because he is, in some respects, responsible for each of us, as we are Americans abroad. Well this past Wednesday, the Danish Chief of Danish Defense, Peter Bartram, also came to give a lecture and he opened my eyes to a lot of ideas I hadn’t previously considered.
I would like to preface this by saying that I am not very politically active personally and I am not as well educated in politics or world affairs as I would like to be and have been trying to be recently. Which was also one of my reasons for attending these past two talks so that I could learn more. Well one of the first things the Chief discussed was what his actual responsibilities are. For instance, because he is the Chief of Danish Defense, he is also in charge of Greenland’s security because Greenland is a part of the kingdom of Denmark. Consequently, Denmark is actually fairly high on the list of NATO countries ranked by size. But this means any threat to Greenland is something this Dane needs to consider which I hadn’t previously thought of. He is also in charge of managing the budget for defense and this has its added challenges, as Denmark is a welfare state. The country absolutely needs to have strict budgets and there have recently been several budget cuts to important departments in an effort to maintain their welfare state, including the budget for security. Bartram listed off just a few expenses different department required to buy military equipment and this just added a whole new dimension to his job that I feel like people can easily forget when they think of what a military officer might need to consider.
I also realized during his speech how relevant the Baltic and Ukraine regions are today for countries so close to them, like Denmark. I think the US government pays attention to them but is currently more focused on issues in the Middle East. However, countries so near these regions constantly need to monitor activity transgressing in regions that are practically at its borders. This is something my literature class has also recently been discussing as we read the book, Purge, in class, an Estonian-Finnish novel by Sofi Oksanen. It was actually an amazing book and was made into a movie in 2012, which was in turn nominated for the Oscars that year in the Best Foreign Film category. Reading about the Soviet occupation of Estonia and the issues that the country still faces today really brought to light how many other countries are having hard times even if they aren’t the countries constantly talked about in the news. It also reminded me how important these issues can be to smaller countries, like Denmark, even if they don’t seem overly pressing to the rest of the world.
And the last rather surprising thing Bartram discussed was that one of the biggest threats Greenland faces today and actually one of challenges he feels obligated to deal with most in the coming years is the melting of the Arctic regions. This was indeed listed on his map of current threats to worry about, basically the only threat surrounding Greenland, but he definitely seemed concerned about how global warming is affecting a region that’s part of the kingdom of Denmark. Perhaps particularly because this is the issue that does not seem to have any possible quick fix to make it better any time soon. The lecture was certainly enlightening in many respects and I feel very lucky to have attended these talks by powerful people in the world, willing to share their experiences with those trying to follow in their footsteps.
thecopenhagenexperience 