The 2011 Nordic Globalization Barometer is the fourth in its series, again designed to serve as input to the Nordic Globalization Forum. With the global crisis giving room to a reluctant and highly uneven recovery, the focus is turning towards the emerging shape of the post-crisis global economy. The US is struggling with long-term fiscal imbalances amidst a slow recovery. Europe is divided between quickly recovering economies led by Germany in the north and debt-struck economies in the south. The emerging economies have continued their ascendency.

The Nordic economies have been fully exposed to these changes in the global economy. Their solid domestic policies enabled them to deal with the crisis much better than many of their OECD peers, with Iceland being a special case. In the short run, the fiscal imbalances created by the economic crisis are a dominant concern for a significant part of the region, Denmark and Finland in particular. In the longer run, all Nordic countries face the question of how to react when the centre of gravity in the global economy moves away from Europe.