Northern Europe Office

Wieslander speaks to BBC on Russian nuclear threats

Wieslander in Carneige Europe’s “Judy Asks: Is Europe taking resilience seriously?”

“Resilience, the ability for society to bounce back after a major shock, is increasingly important not only because of extreme weather effects on society but also because of the ability of adversaries to conduct hybrid warfare during peacetime, which puts societal resilience at the forefront of any efficient deterrence measure….Sweden and Finland are interesting in […]

Wieslander on “How the war in Ukraine has remade Europe” in the Washington Post

“NATO’s gravitational center has also moved north, too, toward Finland and Sweden, two traditionally neutral nations that were so shocked by Putin’s invasion that they applied to join the alliance. As Anna Wieslander, who heads the Stockholm Atlantic Council Office, said, the last time Sweden joined a European alliance was in Napoleon’s time, more than […]

Wieslander speaks at Warsaw Security Forum

Anna Wieslander spoke at two sessions at the Warsaw Security Forum. First, the roundtable “European Security and the Baltic Sea: Self-Defence or Collective Defence?” where she addressed threat perceptions vis-à-vis Russia with Suzanne Raine, Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics; Robert Pszczel, NATO Public Diplomacy Division; Gen. (ret.) Mark Carleton-Smith, UK Chief of the General Staff; and Catherine Ashton, Woodrow […]

Wieslander speaks at Helsinki Security Forum

Anna Wieslander spoke on the opening panel at the first-ever Helsinki Security Forum. She spoke on lessons learned since the full-scale war in Ukraine began. First was that “Ukraine is part of Europe” and needs to be a part of the European community. There needed to be further rounds of EU enlargement to other contested […]

Wieslander on the rise of the far-right Sweden Democrats in NYTimes

“In a way, their success is not so surprising, given that no government dealt really with the migration issue, which has been there for years, affecting society more and more, and with the way crime has been tied to immigrant groups,” said Wieslander

Eric Adamson on the broader implications of Swedish elections in Washington Post

“When you are holding on to power with one seat, it’s a cause of instability,” said Eric Adamson, a Stockholm-based project manager at the Atlantic Council’s northern Europe office. “This may make it harder for Sweden to take on a leadership role in northern Europe, in the E.U. or in NATO.” Whatever the outcome, the […]

Wieslander cited in New York Times on European unity over Ukraine

“Anna Wieslander, the Swedish director for Northern Europe for the Atlantic Council, said that although support for Ukraine had mostly held across the alliance, it was uneven: strongest in nations with long experience and deep fears of Russian domination, like Poland and the Baltic states, and more difficult to maintain in countries like Belgium, the […]

Wieslander quoted in New York Times on NATO’s changed geostrategic reality

“Referring to the changing geostrategic reality wrought by February’s invasion, Anna Wieslander, the Swedish director for Northern Europe for the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think-tank, said the shift toward collective defense was much bigger than previously seen. ‘It really is a before Feb. 24 and after,’ she said, referring to the date of Russia’s invasion […]

Wieslander speaks at NATO Public Forum in Madrid

On June 29th, Director for Northern Europe Anna Wieslander spoke at the NATO Public Forum in Madrid on the panel “Ambiguous Threats, Determined Responses: Countering Hybrid Threats against NATO Allies.” Ms. Wieslander discussed Sweden’s total-defence strategy along with panelists Lieutenant General Hans-Werner Wiermann, Director General for NATO International Military Staff and Irene Fellin, Special Representative […]