Amid the grinding recession in Europe, the Nordic model is having a new lease of life: the countries of northern Europe are faring better than the southern tier. In our cover story Alyson JK Bailes, a diplomat turned professor who has lived and worked in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland, shares her decades of experience. She concludes that there is no magic economic formula. Rather, the Nordic countries have a precious ability to learn from their mistakes and adapt the model to changing circumstances. For those tempted to go and live in the land of Wallander, Andrew Brown offers some hard-bitten advice.
Instead of trying to forecast the future, as is traditional in December, we analyse the events of 2012 which the experts failed to predict, from the recession in Europe to the apotheosis of K-pop.
