The Nordic countries are leaders when it comes to health care, environmental stewardship and education. In terms of gender equality, the World Economic Forum’s 2016 Global Gender Gap Report ranked Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden the top four countries. The European Commission report shows that 94 percent of Finns, 90 percent of Swedes and 87 percent of Danes say they are satisfied with their health care. The Global Innovation Index ranked Sweden second last year, with all the Nordics solidly and consistently in the top 25. What explains these impressive figures?

During this program, Kirsti Kauppi, current Finnish ambassador to the U.S.; Ambassador András Simonyi of the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Transatlantic Relations; and Ambassador Hilde Janne Skorpen, Norway’s consul general, will take us on a journey through the Nordic region. They will share insights about their successes (where many other members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development have struggled) as well as their challenges. We will also discuss current transatlantic relations from a northern European perspective.