Focus on the EU/NATO agenda – in view of the Academy project SV-A-R project – updated early 2023
- For overview: The recent Atlantic Council issue brief ”How allied Sweden & Finland can secure Northern Europe” coauthored by Academy Member Anna Wieslander. A useful guide to structure an understanding of what otherwise could be perceived as an alphabet soup of tiresome acronyms. Listen to our podcast here.
- Previous: Listen to a short comment on the Sälen Conference and Kiruna from a Swedish EU Presidency perspective. What is the potential contribution of Sweden to security as EU Presidency? Podcast link here.
- Podcast on escalatory risks related to the Ukraine War
- Interview with Dov Zakheim on support to Ukraine and the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO. This podcast provides an essential US perspective on the way ahead.
A first Zoom meeting on the Sälen Conference with more than 30 participants has taken place and a link to the recording has been sent to all Academy Members.
A second event related to possible project ideas for further Academy work after the just concluded SES project.
A third event focussed on deterrence as a central aspect of lessons learned from the Ukraine war.
Other tags will link to flow security, values, and interests, defense capacity – military and civil, structural and organizational issues, nuclear etc.
Different mindmaps and other illustrations will make it possible to see links between various contributions and clusters, including efforts underway in different Academy sections. Avoiding stovepipes in future Academy work will be an essential objective. The idea is to feed into discussions on future strategies on all levels, from the NATO Strategic concept to Swedish national and sectoral strategies.
The EU Presidency track: Here an overview:
Focus on the US and the Transatlantic link
US support to Ukraine and the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO – an interview with Dov Zakheim
In this podcast Dov Zakheim covers a broad range of topics focusing on the need for strong support to Ukraine at least until the end of the current fiscal year in the United States in September 2023. Issues discussed include
– cohesion of NATO
– the importance of Swedish and Finnish accession to NATO soon,
– the likelihood that Putin will seek to reconstitute Russian capabilities during a war of attrition perhaps lasting several years,
– hoping for a better situation perhaps after a Trump return to the White House,
– that the use of nuclear weapons or direct military attacks against NATO territory remains less likely.
Dov Zakheim is a Corresponding Member of the Swedish Royal Academy of War Sciences since 2011 and a writer, businessman and former politician.
An introduction to the debate on Swedish-Finnish integration into NATO military structures – Academy Journal 3/2022
The Academy Proceedings and Journal contains in issue 3/2022 a series of valuable contributions to the debate about Swedish integration together with Finland into NATO. Awaiting more thorough reviews here are a series of short video clips highlighting some of the important considerations to be made not least on the part of NATO in this process.
It links up with both generic issues concerning deterrence and defence in the North and more concrete discussions of common structures including the roles of Norfolk and Brunssum as joint force headquarters.
The bottom line seems to be that the whole debate requires fundamental assumptions about the posture of the United States as regards the defence of Europe and in this case in particular northern Europe and the Arctic region.
Earlier Academy contributions of relevance
Why Powerful Leaders Often Can’t or Won’t Do What They Say
A note to the reader. This essay is written for people who follow world affairs because it matters for their work, their investments, or simply because they want to [...]
Why Powerful Leaders Often Can’t or Won’t Do What They Say
A note to the reader. This essay is written for [...]
Why Powerful Leaders Often Can’t or Won’t Do What They Say
A note to the reader. This essay is written for [...]
Why Powerful Leaders Often Can’t or Won’t Do What They Say
A note to the reader. This essay is written for [...]
Finns det behov av svenska elitförband? – En fråga med ett slumrande svar.
Att leva i nuet är att ständigt återberätta det förflutna, [...]
21 knop genom Gibraltar – och siffrorna som avgör kriget
“People ask if we´ve put Iran in checkmate; I remind [...]
Russia’s Coming Window of Opportunity for World War III
“What made the war inevitable was the growth of Athenian [...]
Vad betyder Nato-medlemskapet för vårt försvars framtid?
Insikten och kunskapen om Nato strategiska inriktning förefaller svag i [...]
Inga amerikanska änglar på Grönland
Några timmar. Max. Längre än så skulle det inte ta [...]
From flows to systemic stress: why the EU needs a flow‑security agenda now
EU måste omgående utveckla en sammanhållen agenda för flödessäkerhet som en [...]
Why Powerful Leaders Often Can’t or Won’t Do What They Say
A note to the reader. This essay is written for [...]
US Perspectives on NATO and the EU in View of a Potential Second Trump Administration – Part 1
From an American perspective, the EU is often seen as [...]
Unmanned systems are more than just a “thing.”
The war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 [...]
Local elections in Turkey – A cold shower for “invincible” Erdogan
An astonishing volte-face in Turkish politics, and a cold shower [...]
Is there a breaking point for Russia? Looking back at the cold war and ahead towards 2025
How do we know and when will we know if [...]
Drivers of conflicts – Why is the number of conflicts in the world increasing
“If we did accept an empire that was offered to [...]
Will Strategic Stability Between the West and Russia Require Arms Control?
Arguably, there is a need to connect the dots between [...]