About the book
This book investigates several aspects of military power and security in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions.
NATO’s northern flank is a large maritime and littoral theatre, where NATO directly borders Russia’s Northern Fleet Military Administrative Territory, which is the location of some of Russia’s most potent air, sea, and land power capabilities. While military tensions on the northern flank had been relatively low for years, the Ukraine war and increased great-power rivalry have altered that dynamic, with heightened geopolitical tensions. This has increased the focus on military-strategic competition in this northernmost region of the alliance. This book presents new assessments of several aspects of military power and security in the North Atlantic and Arctic regions. With an analysis of the security and political climate in the High North and of developments in Western military strategies, capabilities, doctrines, and operational concepts, the volume seeks to bring together an holistic understanding of the strategic challenges and opportunities facing the North Atlantic states and NATO in this dynamic area of responsibility for the alliance. In doing this, the book provides key insights into the role of branch-specific and joint approaches to power projection and operations in the High North, which also include selected country case studies.
This book will be of much interest to students of NATO, military studies, security studies, and International Relations.
Finnish and Swedish NATO membership: What does it hold for the Arctic?
This chapter sketches Finland's and Sweden's positions as (new or future) NATO members when it comes to the Northern or Arctic areas and looks at how their NATO membership changes the military strategic dynamic in the Nordic-Arctic region.
This chapter first puts the Arctic in the context of the two countries’ foreign, security, and defense policies prior to the decision to apply for NATO membership, along with Nordic and bilateral Finnish-Swedish cooperation in security and defense. This chapter then analyzes changes in the two countries’ security and defence policy, doctrine, and strategy, during the year 2022 when the two applied for NATO membership: alongside the momentous reorientation, some continuity can be seen.
This chapter looks at what other NATO countries expect from the two and examines how the two countries now see the Arctic area, how they see their roles in NATO and the role of NATO in the Arctic region. The two countries significantly increase NATO's Nordic and Arctic territory, and also bring strong contributions to collective defense. At the same time, their thinking about the defense of their northernmost parts will change, and their views about potential Nordic footprints in NATO will develop.
Full info
Chapter 13: Finnish and Swedish NATO membership: What does it hold for the Arctic?
In: Defending NATO's Northern Flank: Power Projection and Military Operations
Routledge (2023)
ISBN: 9781003343905