Denmark's international position and foreign policy are determined by the geographic position of our country, and its role as both a West European and a Nordic democracy.

The Aims
The aims of the Danish Armed Forces are established in an Act passed by Parliament in February 2001.
The Armed Forces constitute an important means of the security policy and have the aims of

• Preventing conflicts and war,
• Upholding the sovereignty of Denmark and securing continued existence and integrity of the country and
• Furthering peaceful development in the world with due respect for human rights.

The Tasks
The Act defines six main tasks for the Armed Forces: 

• Crisis management and co-operation
  The Armed Forces shall as an integral part of NATO, in co-operation with allied forces, be able to participate in the prevention of conflicts, crises management and the defence of NATO's territory in accordance with the strategy of the Alliance.
  
• Sovereignty and exercising authority
  The Armed Forces shall be able to ascertain and repulse violations of Danish sovereignty and exercise authority in the Danish sovereign area.
  
• Building of confidence and promotion of stability
  The Armed Forces shall be able to participate in building of confidence and promoting of stability tasks as well as dialogues and co-operation in the defence-related area with countries outside NATO, with a particular emphasis on the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
  
• Peace support
  The Danish Armed Forces by military means shall be able to contribute to conflict prevention, peacekeeping, peaceenforcement, humanitarian and other similar tasks.
  
• Other tasks
  The other tasks of the Armed Forces customarily fall within a very broad spectrum. What they have in common is that the completion of the tasks is either an appropriate consequence of the activities which the military defence conducts in general, or is an expression of the fact that the civil resources of the society in the area concerned are insufficient or not as suitable as the resources of the Armed Forces. This involves attending to, or participation in public services and different forms of permanent or occasional task completion.
  
  The Armed Forces are responsible for the National Ice Service and the responsibility for the state maritime environmental monitoring and maintenance, and the state maritime pollution control at sea.
  
  The Armed Forces perform fisheries inspections in the Faroes and on Greenland and provide support to the local society.
  The Armed Forces contribute to the search and rescue service.
  The Armed Forces perform ammunition clearing, etc. Also upon request they support the police, the central customs and tax administration, the emergency rescue service, the hospital system, etc.
  
• Employment capability
  The Armed Forces shall be composed of forces of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force whose size, fighting strength, endurance, mobility and flexibility make it possible to fulfill the tasks mentioned above. The Home Guard shall participate as a part of the Armed Forces in the fulfillment of those tasks incumbent upon the three services.