The Mind the Gap research team met up for a first kick-off workshop in Copenhagen from 10-11 August 2023 to engage in creative thinking on how we are to explore the gap in one of the most sensitive policy areas of all: National Security Policy.

Prior to the workshop, Principal Investigator, Prof. Sten Rynning, had had multiple consultations with the Danish and Norwegian Ministries of Foreign Affairs to establish a collaboration, which will allow us to examine the gap in real-time by ‘shadowing’ top diplomats at work in NATO as well as the capitals through a year in the making of national security policy.

During the workshop, Rynning reported on the early stage of this nascent collaboration with the authorities, while Prof. Mariager gave a first report on the relevant data sources in relation to the historical archival research.

Finally, the research team sketched a plan for the entire project and its different work packages and stages.