RESECTOR: Reinterpreting Sector Responsibility in Nordic Crisis Management after COVID‑19

When COVID-19 hit the Nordic Countries in early 2020, a distinct Nordic crisis management principle known as the sector responsibility principle (a principle of decentralized preparedness planning and crisis management) was submitted to its hitherto most dramatic test: managing a full-scale crisis response across virtually all societal sectors and with an open-ended timeline which stretched for months and, as it turned out, years.

Evaluations conducted in Denmark, Sweden and Norway revealed extensive and serious coordination deficiencies and weaknesses related to the responsibility principle. In particular, the underlying philosophy of decentralized crisis management gave way to strong political leadership, centralized decision-making and top-down strategic direction. The failure of the responsibility principle during COVID-19, therefore, requires systematic analyses of the implications of the principle, of how it was reinterpreted during the crisis, of the long-term consequences for Nordic crisis management, and of the very way in which Nordic societies organize and navigate in relation to different sectors of society.

Against this background, this research project examines how COVID-19 challenged and changed the principle of responsibility in the Nordic countries and what we can take from this crisis in developing multi-sectoral crisis management.