Northern Europe Office

Wieslander in Chatham House interview:”How will Sweden’s right turn affect its foreign policy priorities?”

Although the Sweden Democrats are not formally part of Sweden’s new government, the ruling minority coalition will depend on parliamentary support from the far-right party, giving them influence over government policy for the first time. This represents a clear shift to the right for a country with a long history of social democratic governments. How will this change […]

Wieslander speaks to Sveriges Radio “Russia Correspondents” podcast

“Tough rhetoric and warnings from Putin have not been matched” by the movement of tactical nuclear weapons, Anna Wieslander said, giving her analysis of Russian nuclear threats.

Wieslander in Sveriges Radio Podcast “Gräns”

“Russia could take a portion of Swedish territory in the High North to expand its defensive bubble,” Wieslander said in a podcast about Sweden’s new security climate.

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 […]