On May 18, 2022, the Swedish and Finnish NATO ambassadors formally submitted their membership applications to the alliance. In doing so, they ended decades – in Sweden’s case, centuries – of military nonalignment and overlapping but varied security arrangements in the Nordics and Baltics. Sweden and Finland, whose bilateral defense cooperation has deepened substantially in recent years, will now contribute to NATO’s defense of the Arctic and the Baltic Sea region.
In the anthology ”Stronger Together”, published in cooperation between Stockholm Free World Forum and Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, authors from Sweden, Finland, and beyond will explore how Sweden and Finland will adapt to NATO and vice versa. This report is adapted from a chapter in the book, where Karlis Neretnieks explores how Sweden and Finland’s NATO accession will allow countries in the region to coordinate operational planning and develop national force structures that complement each other.