Nordic Review of International Studies

Reimagining crisis management

Helmi Räisänen — 2024-10-10

Shaping Security

Albert Weckman — 2024-10-10

The main purpose of this discussion article is to provide insight into and highlight the growing importance of citizen attitudes on security policy related issues, a largely neglected area in both public opinion and international relations research. In this article, we reflect on the role of public opinion in decision making regarding security issues and the important role it plays in policy formation in democratic states. We believe that the discussion around security attitudes is imperative not only for one’s own national defence, but also for increasing our knowledge of how solidarity can be sustained within Western democracies. This discussion article takes up some of these issues and reflects on where they might be leading, not only for Finland and Sweden, but also for Nordic cooperation and NATO in the near future.

Asmus strategic vision makes a comeback

Andris Banka — 2024-10-10

As the three Baltic countries embarked upon their NATO membership path, Western critics objected that these nations were militarily indefensible. To neutralise such concerns, a key NATO enlargement architect on the US side, Ronald Asmus, had proposed looking in the Nordic countries’ direction. His plan, sketched out in 1997, was to woo the Finns and Swedes to join NATO ranks, which would effectively alleviate the Baltic problem of strategic depth. At the time, Nordic leaders balked at the idea and conveyed their unwillingness to carry Baltic security burdens on their shoulders. With the recent double Nordic NATO alliance membership, it is well worth revisiting the arguments and discussions surrounding the proposal of putting Nordic countries in charge of Baltic security. Drawing primarily upon declassified US State Department materials, this article sheds light on the envisioned Nordic–Baltic security linkage and how Finnish and Swedish diplomats perceived it at the time. Subsequently, the discussion article assesses Helsinki and Stockholm’s transition from non-aligned to full NATO-member status and how this geopolitical fact may benefit the outlook of the three Baltic states.

Adieu neutrality

Brendan Humphreys — 2024-10-10

With the decisions of Finland and Sweden to join NATO, a long chapter of Nordic neutrality is suddenly closed. This article examines the often misunderstood term ‘neutrality’ and the problems of finding a single definition relevant to post-Cold War politics. It then looks at the unique role and high profile that the Nordics have enjoyed in diplomacy and peacekeeping. Finally, it asks if NATO membership for Sweden and Finland is detrimental to international diplomacy and conflict resolution.

Russian informational campaigns and NATO in the Arctic

Mathieu Landriault — 2024-10-10

This discussion article presents evidence of how Russia mounts information campaigns through its press agencies to discredit NATO’s presence in the Arctic region. The analysis highlights how and when different framings of NATO’s actions in the Arctic region are disseminated by Russian press agencies. The discussion article suggests strategies to counter these campaigns as well as recommendations for policy-makers and researchers to better monitor Russian disinformation on the Arctic region.

Imagining peace and producing knowledge about the war in Ukraine

Tyyne Karjalainen — 2024-10-10

After two and half years of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, experts around Europe are increasingly tempted to picture peace in Ukraine and security in post-war Europe. Peace researchers have a few useful principles to guide the way. The legacy of Johan Galtung proposes that not just any peace is better than conflict. The kind of peace that is suitable should be defined by those affected by the conflict. To support the emerging debate, this discussion article asks, what do we know about what peace means for Ukrainians? The answer is not that much. Debates about peace and security in Europe have long sidelined perspectives from the ‘periphery’ and Ukrainian voices continue to be dismissed despite the on-going war. Moscow’s perspective, in contrast, has historically been influential in shaping European debates, manifested in the silent acceptance of Russian imperialism in its self described sphere of interest. This discussion article proposes that in order to leave behind the European security order that enabled Russia’s aggression in the first place, the perspective of the ‘peripheries’ should be placed at the forefront of imagining future peace and security in Europe.

The Peace and Security Implications of Climate Change for the Nordic Region

Kyungmee Kim — 2024-10-10

Climate-related stressors like extreme weather events, in combination with factors such as increased global rivalry for natural resources and a changing global order, will exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, and drive compounding and cascading effects. Such developments may undermine the resilience of communities and institutions also in the Nordic region and can have a negative impact on social cohesion and human security. In the Arctic region, in particular, temperature rises faster than the global, which further increases vulnerability and risks. This discussion article suggests that the Nordic countries are relatively well equipped to tackle comprehensive security risks and have adaptive capacity towards climate change. We argue, however, that far more could still be done on foresight and preparedness for climate-related security risks. In particular, the Nordic countries must strengthen their cooperation on climate security to effectively address the escalating challenges.

Becoming allies

Matti Pesu — 2024-10-10

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.

Naturalising nuclear deterrence

Tapio Juntunen — 2024-10-10

Finland and Sweden’s decisions to join NATO not only marks the end of a long period of neutrality and military non-alignment for the Nordic neighbours - they also require major shifts in their policies and self-perceptions related to nuclear weapons, disarmament, and nuclear deterrence. Drawing on a comparative research design and theory on depoliticisation, this article analyses how joining a nuclear alliance was made possible in two historical contexts marked by traditional opposition towards nuclear weapons. Comparing domestic deliberations about the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and NATO membership between 2016–2022, our findings suggest that two key narratives are essential for understanding how the nuclear dimension of NATO membership was reconciled in both countries. First, ‘the virtue of (disarmament) pragmatism’ narrative centres around how the historically stratified Finnish pragmatic approach to nuclear disarmament served as a guiding principle in both countries. Second, ‘the necessity of extended (nuclear) deterrence’ narrative enabled the nuclear dimension of NATO membership to become reconciled with Finland and Sweden’s historically neutral and non-aligned policies.

Nationalist justifications of realist policies

Waltteri Immonen — 2024-10-10

Russia’s all-out-attack against Ukraine in late February 2022 caused a fast turnaround in Finland’s public support for NATO membership that led the political parties, which had hitherto opposed joining NATO, to reconsider their stances. I argue that those parties, via their elites, employed a realist strategy of security, bolstered by political nationalism to express unity with the population to justify their shift, in an attempt to depoliticise the issue altogether. The premise of the study thus becomes the use of nationalism in explaining states joining international organisations rather than seeing it only as a disruptive force in interstate cooperation. The study also contributes to the previous scholarship on Finnish foreign policy and its different schools of thought by examining how nationalism plays a part in the realms of security and national interest. Ultimately, the membership signals a Finnish foreign policy swing from idealism to classical realism in which Finland had hitherto been an anomaly. This study uses data collected from Finnish parliamentary parties’ council conferences held between April and May 2022, where they formulated their stances.

Foreign Fighters in Ukraine: The Brown-Red Cocktail

Sofiya Voytiv — 2024-10-10

Editorial

Johanna Vuorelma — 2024-10-10