From a defence opt-out to a defence opt-in : Exploring the Danish government’s framing of their policy shift regarding the military aspects of the EU´s CSDP

Sammanfattning: When the Danish government conducted a policy shift, calling for an overturn of the defence opt-out of the European common security and defence policy (CSDP) during the spring of 2022, it was not clear that the public would vote yes. It is not challenging for existing research to explain why the government changed its attitude towards the EU, a more interesting focus, however, is how a government in a pressured situation tries to conduct a credible policy change. This study explores how the Danish government conducted a policy shift, utilising a two-step analytical framework involving frame analysis and, more precisely, frame alignment strategies to study how the government changed their framing of the EU and NATO as solutions. This field of study is essential to comprehend how military policy is created in the public sphere towards the population. The results indicate a shift in the framing of the EU, moving from being framed as a non-military security provider towards being recognised by the Danish government as an individual military security actor. However, it is still vital for Denmark to highlight NATO's distinctive role in Danish military policy. The shift is conducted using the frame alignment strategies of; bridging, amplification and downplaying to essentially the same extent as previous studies predicted.