Welcome to the Nordic Safe City Blueprint, and to the conversation on how we create a safer Nordic region.

In the past decade, Nordic cities have increasingly focused on preventing violent extremism by tackling polarisation, hate speech, radicalisation and recruitment of their citizens. With the rise and fall of Daesh (ISIS), people throughout the Western world were exposed to propaganda and recruitment via mainstream online media. Some of them, mostly adventurous and identity-seeking young people, left for conflict zones in Syria and Iraq or were subsequently inspired to act in their home countries. Many countries across the globe and cities in the Nordics experienced terror attacks. An unprecedented number of people from war zones sought refuge across Europe and the Nordics from the civil unrest in Syria and Iraq. This fuelled a polarising immigration debate in 2015 and led to renewed anti-immigrant sentiment across the Nordics.

The resulting concern over potential terrorism has, in recent years, led Nordic cities and countries to place an increasing focus on the prevention of extremism and terrorism. What started as a concerning rise in radical Islamic extremism in 2014, has today been exacerbated by a rise and normalisation of right-wing extremism globally. Extremist thought and ultra-nationalistic ideals that were once primarily shared in smaller and more closed forums, have today become an influence in mainstream political life in several European countries. As new forms of extremist propaganda, disinformation and recruitment mechanisms arise, the Nordic intelligence and security agencies report that the threat of extremism remains elevated. Recent terrorist attacks around the world, including the Nordics, continue to remind us of the threat posed by radicalisation. As a result, the need to safeguard citizens from extremist violence and hate is today one of the world’s most pressing security challenges.

The member cities in the Nordic Safe Cities Alliance have had efficient strategies and measures for early prevention in place for several decades. And today, the prevention of extremism is an integral element in most cities’ crime prevention strategies. Yet the ever changing patterns in extremist trends, the continuous threat level in 2020, and the normalisation of extremist anti-democratic thought and practice combine to create a constant need for adaption and innovation in city strategies and measures to sustain safety.

Five years after the inception of Nordic Safe Cities, we have seen how Nordic countries and their welfare states are often praised internationally as successful societal models for their ability to build trust, and, to a high degree, safeguard citizens from extremist influence. However, the Nordic countries and cities can and must continuously develop their work to keep pace with the mainstreaming of extremism and the changing ways that extremists recruit, communicate and act. Nordic Safe Cities exists to support the cities in these efforts.

This Safe City Blueprint presents an overview of the current safe city strategies in 19 Nordic cities and a mapping of some of the emerging themes within extremism prevention at a local level. The blueprint represents a landscape of urgent issues that we need to act on together if we are to stay ahead in the fight against extremism.

For this reason, we have chosen to make the blueprint public even though it is still a work-in-progress. By sharing the challenges in the Nordic cities, we hope to attract the best organisations, people, ideas and voices to our alliance, to bring new thoughts, concepts and best practice to the Nordics to keep Nordic cities, people and democracies safe. Therefore, this is an invitation for you to help shape the new Nordic response to extremism. We envision this as a dynamic document that will be updated throughout 2020 with new thoughts, perspectives and solutions from our cities, readers and potential partners.

The ambition in Nordic Safe Cities is to make the Nordic region a global pioneer for the prevention of all forms of extremism while still being deeply rooted in our Nordic and democratic history, values and DNA.

You are invited to join us on this journey.

Enjoy the read.