Nordic Country Council Meeting Highlights

Country Council Focus: Nordic Councils

As OSAC evolves to meet the needs of both the private sector and Regional Security Offices overseas, the trend toward common interest councils continues to emerge as a new and effective way to share information among people with similar security concerns. Last year, OSAC launched the Latin America Regional Council (LARC), a group based in Miami but focusing on Western Hemisphere security concerns. With this regional idea in mind, the Country Councils in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, in collaboration with their respective RSOs and American Chambers of Commerce, joined together for the first meeting of the Nordic Country Council on September 7-8 in Copenhagen. The meeting, titled Nordic Security Challenges 2006, attracted high-level attention from U.S. Embassy Copenhagen, including a visit by the American Ambassador to Denmark.

The Summit kicked off with a best practices session attended by representatives of the steering committee of each Country Council. The RSOs and Council Chairs spoke about the security issues affecting the private sector locally, while RISC's Major Events Coordinator briefed the group on recent OSAC initiatives. The Security Directors for several major private sector organizations presented several case studies on topics such as the Göteborg Riots, recognizing when a facility is under surveillance, and protecting human assets.

Over 100 constituents attended Day Two of the Summit. The program included a RISC presentation on the radicalization of Western Europe-- particularly relevant in light of the arrests of a group of Danish extremists the previous night. Other topics included the general terrorism threat to the Nordic countries and the threats to Denmark in the wake of the publication of the Prophet Mohammed cartoons earlier this year.

The Scandinavian countries plan to host another common interest council meeting in Stockholm in the coming year. OSAC encourages councils within geographic proximity of one another, and with similar security concerns, to consider holding regional meetings such as this. Council leadership and RSOs alike can contact their respective RISC Regional Coordinator if they are interested in regional meetings.