Society's resilience and cohesion - in a new ministry, welcome and introduction

On Monday October 7th 2024, IDA Risk will focus on society's resilience and cohesion. Experts and professionals from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark will meet to learn from each other's experiences and knowledge related to the different actors' ability to cooperate together when things are organized incorrectly or things go wrong. 

13:00 Welcome and introduction by John Michael Foley, IDA Risk, Engineering Society, House of Engineers

13:10 Hand over to the conference moderator for practical information, Nina Blom Andersen, docent, ph.d., Københavns Professionshøjskole

13:20 From National Vulnerability Assessment (2004) to a Ministry of Emergency Preparedness (2024) - from a helicopter perspective, Niels Johan Juhl-Nielsen, vice-chairman, Social Entrepreneurs in DK

13:40 Presentation by Ole Andreas Hegland Engen, Professor in Societal Security, University of Stavanger (online)

14:10 Presentation by Rikard Bengtsson , Associate professor, Lund University

15:10 Presentation by Johanna Ketola, Senior researcher, University of Turku

15:40 Why should extinction of nature and animals be an integrated part of a ministry of preparedness? Alexander Holm, biologist

16:00 Panel debate + Q & A moderated by Nina Blom Andersen

16:50 Concluding remarks and end of the Conference

Toward resilience and national cohesive force – in Denmark.

Can societal preparedness in the Nordic countries inspire when Denmark sets up a Ministry for Societal Security and Preparedness?

In many respects, the Nordic countries share a common identity when it comes to the definition and understanding of the organization of the welfare society. Through the development in recent years, the countries have also approached each other with regard to the question of what can be identified as national resilience. Finland's and Sweden's admission first to the EU and later to NATO has contributed to this.

As far as Denmark is concerned, this new focus has been a later adaptation to an overall coherent international security policy development than has been the case for our Nordic brothers and sisters. Thus, it is only very recently that Denmark has decided to establish a Ministry for Societal Security and Preparedness. - While Finland has had the threat from Russia as a dominant factor for establishing a national resilience, Sweden has had a background as neutral and belonging to the group of non-aligned countries and Norway has developed its own self-conscious form of national identity and development, Denmark establishes a new ministry by transferring hitherto fragmented tasks from a larger number of ministries with the intention of being able to achievenational resilience.

No further explanation of the realization of the intention behind the desire to establish national resilience and the establishment of the Ministry for Societal Security and Preparedness yet exists.

And of course it will take time to bring the many fragmented contributions from various ministries together into a coherent societal preparedness. Just as it will take time to develop a culture based on a holistic approach to societal preparedness as a replacement for a culture based an acute and remedial operation.

How to organizationally define and thematize the diversity of themes under the umbrella of social security and preparedness, so that it is not primarily based on acute and current needs, but is based on a long-term and timeless mapping? (including climate, biodiversity and other items)

How should the relationship between the themes of societal security and preparedness in a separate new ministry be related to community tasks in the other ministries of a nation?

What does the concept of societal security and preparedness imply for specifically the assessment of technology (AI) and the involvement of the citizens in relation to the countries municipalities?

Questions that may be raised primarily for individual Nordic countries:

Norway: What is the content and purpose of an underlying societal security instruction?

Finland: Is it not precisely in a Ministry of the Interiors portfolio that the issue of societal cohesion belongs?

Sweden: How can a geographic horizontal area responsibility constitute an overarching organizing principle that should be matched with a vertical sector responsibility?

 The researchers and speakers from the Nordic countries are:

Ole Andreas Hegland Engen

Rikard Bengtsson 

Johanna Ketola

Based on the Danish government's decision to establish a Ministry of Civil Protection and Emergency Preparedness, researchers from Norway, Sweden, Finland contribute with their experiences on how their countries ensure the security of their societies.