Becoming allies

Finland and Norway after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

This article analyses Finland and Norway’s evolving narratives about one another as neighbours, partners, and allies against the backdrop of political and scholarly discourses about the broader Nordic security community. Drawing on International Relations (IR) theories on regional security complexes and security community formation, we find that a swift reframing of the Finnish-Norwegian relationship was possible after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 because it was formulated against the backdrop of the already established narrative about the well-functioning and trustful Nordic security community. The intense interaction dynamics between Finland and Norway in recent years have brought the Nordic security community to an unprecedented level of integration, and an all-time high sense of ‘we-ness’ now characterises Finnish-Norwegian relations.