Arne O. Holm says The High North Is the Place to Meet Ministers and Generals

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However, what could've been called the Armed Forces' day in the North had already started at 07:00 on Tuesday morning. That is when the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, entered Stormen Library in Bodø, Northern Norway.

There, he presented what the Conservative Party's chair of the Storting's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ine Eriksen Søreide, soon afterwards called a sensational announcement that should have an aftermath in the Norwegian parliament.

Whining in the south

Instead, her party colleague, Mayor Odd Emil Ingebrightsen, could let his excitement loose after the Norwegian government had decided to place NATO's new air operations center in Bodø in Northern Norway.

The mayor of Moss municipality, the other proposed location for the center, Simen Nord, also reacted to the decision, calling it district policy.

That is one way to turn the argumentation 180 degrees. By placing the new NATO center at Reitan outside of Bodø, the government follows solid professional arguments, the recommendation from the Chief of Defense, and emphasizes the significance of the High North for national security. 

Strengthening the High North by placing the center in Rygge outside of Moss would, on the other hand, be a pure district policy measure.

"The High North has been Norway's security policy priority for 20 years. Here, we pay special attention to the fact that we are a neighbor of Russia, and there is increased interest in the Arctic. Much of our strengthening of the Armed Forces is taking place in the north, including the build-up of our new Navy. Sweden and Finland's entry into NATO comes on top of this as well," said PM Jonas Gahr Støre before he literally rushed onwards in the security policy landscape of the North.

More specifically, to Evenes and Ramsun.

But Støre is not travelling alone.

Mark Rutte

He has NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte with him, in addition to Norwegian MFA Espen Barth Eide and MoD Tore O. Sandvik.

The top-heavy delegation is to inspect the surveillance aircraft P8 at Evenes Air Station.

At the military base Ramsund Naval Station, a 30-minute drive or a few minutes by helicopter from Evenes, the Secretary General and the government members will board the coast guard ship Svalbard and witness a military exercise.

They may also receive a briefing on why the planned task force in Ramsund has been severely delayed.

But it doesn’t stop there.

I and others also met Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Kirkenes, where he talked about what it’s like to navigate the geopolitical “hot spot" of the North.

Today, the Chiefs of Defense had their turn at the Kirkenes Conference.

They entered the stage one by one: Generals Eirik Kristoffersen (Norway), Janne Jaakola (Finland), Carl Johan Edström (Sweden), and Wiggers Hylgaard (Denmark).

Worried National Audit Office

Timely enough, amid this security policy mobilization in the north, the National Audit Office of Norway showed up with concerns about civil society.

If we are to believe the audit, and we should, civil society is not keeping up with what we call total preparedness. Municipalities and counties do not know how to act in a military conflict, nor do they have the resources needed.

It is demanding enough for anyone to keep up when money is tight and decisions are being made at record speed when it comes to the Armed Forces. And I am not thinking of the districts further south in the country.

Policy will hit the mark only if the Armed Forces and civil society play as a team.