Peter Ernstved: Is There Hope for Danish Defence?

For 35 years, politicians, civil servants and top military officers tried to convince Danes that the threat to the country had disappeared - and that defence could therefore be safely cut back as long as there were soldiers for foreign missions. When the war in Ukraine broke out, it became clear that the very defence we had dismantled was what we now needed. Donald Trump's return to the White House and his ambitions to end the war in Ukraine and take over Greenland have since left not just Denmark, but all of Europe unprepared for the new world order.

This is the starting point for Peter Ernstved Rasmussen's lecture. He is the founder of the defence media OLFI and host of Frontlinjen on Radio IIII. In his book Defenceless - When the Greatest Threat Comes from Within (2024), he examines the decisions and power struggles that have weakened Danish defence from within.

In the lecture, he places the course of events in an international perspective - from the war in Ukraine through NATO and Europe's future to the great power rivalry between the USA, Russia and China.

Venue: Store Sal