Scandinavian Safety and Security: How to ‘Hygge’ in a VUCA World

(3 Credits)

How do small, high-trust societies survive in an increasingly volatile world? Long ranked among the world's happiest and safest nations, Denmark balances a robust social welfare state with global innovation and helps build relations across cultural, religious, and political divides. A rising VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) landscape, marked by geopolitical shocks from the US and Russia, strains this domestic stability. Can the cultural concept of hygge - the conscious creation of cozy, comforting moments - explain how communities build trust and resilience, or does a turbulent era demand a new approach to human security building on past successes of the welfare state? Using Denmark as a living classroom, students connect political thinking, historical perspectives and contemporary debates to frontline defense and crisis management. Fieldwork and reflective assignments develop a practical framework for analyzing how small democratic states safeguard borders, infrastructure and social cohesion without sacrificing openness and trust. This is an away course in Denmark.