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“NATO’s Nordic Realignment” 

by Thomas Henriksen

As Russia continues its violent designs against Ukraine, Sweden and Finland are pursuing membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Both nations have vibrant democracies, professional militaries, and proximity to Russia, which means they have real national security skin in the game.

Yet the news media accounts of the prospective accession into NATO neglect the countries’ long history of warfare with Russia, particularly involving Sweden. They note Stockholm’s neutrality during World War I and II, as well as during the Cold War, with little mention of its historic military role in the Baltic Sea. This one-dimensional coverage belies the dramatic U-turns undertaken by the two Nordic states and the profound realignment among their fellow states in the region.

Sweden’s two-century nonalignment away from grand alliances is rooted in its legacy of wars with its Russian neighbor in the Baltic basin. Conflicts against Russia date at least from the Novgorodian Wars in the early twelfth century (leaving aside the Viking raids three centuries earlier). Novgorod was a medieval state stretching from Gulf of Finland to the Ural Mountains. This fighting was a harbinger of a nearly unbroken chain of conflicts between Sweden and Russia for control of the Baltic Sea and its vital commerce among the bordering countries. Over a dozen Russo-Swedish wars erupted in the next eight centuries. Some lasted a few years; others went on for a decade or more.