The Nordic Peace emerged from a historical background where war was a common means of conflict resolution. This pattern ended in 1814, establishing an ad hoc framework for peaceful conflict resolution in the Nordic region. Key principles of compromise, unilateral accommodation, and trust-building became the foundations of the Nordic Peace.

During the Cold War, these principles enabled Norway, a founding NATO member, to develop sophisticated mechanisms for managing relations with the Soviet Union. Through trust-building initiatives that balanced deterrence with reassurance, Norway helped create a zone of low tensions. However, this legacy of trust, enabled by the conflict resilience of the Nordic Peace, has diminished as Norway abandoned its reassurance policies following the war in Ukraine.

Today, the Arctic is undergoing rapid re-militarisation in an era of multipolarity, alongside increased activity due to climate change, returning the region to the global arena it was during the Cold War. The competencies that once maintained peaceful coexistence in the North are more relevant than ever—yet they are increasingly diminishing in the post-post-Cold War Arctic.