Finland’s NATO accession
While formerly neutral, Sweden and Finland have jointly decided to join NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland’s accession in particular will impact the military balance in the Baltic-Nordic theater of contention between Russia and the alliance. Joining NATO would be the culmination of a longer alignment process for Finland, argue Eemeli Isoaho, Niklas Masuhr and Fabien Merz in this CSS Analysis.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022 has had far-reaching implications for the European security architecture and beyond. It has compelled European states to rethink their defense postures and reevaluate their existing security frameworks and partnerships. The readjustments to this new threat landscape were arguably nowhere as fast and farreaching in terms of their implications as in Northern Europe. Finland, a member of the EU since 1995 but traditionally militarily non-aligned, which shares a 1344 km long border with Russia, saw a rapid shift in public opinion in favor of NATO membership. After an unprecedented and wide consensus emerged first among the public and then among the government and major political parties, Finland moved to officially apply for NATO membership together with Sweden on May 18, 2022.