Northern Europe

Falling in: The deterrent value of Host Nation Support in the Baltic Sea region

By Kathleen McInnis and Connor McPartland

Host Nation Support plays a vital, yet often overlooked, role in enabling NATO’s overall deterrence strategy for the Baltic Sea region.

A transatlantic agenda for homeland security and resilience beyond COVID-19

By Anna Wieslander

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has disclosed the importance of resilient power – a society’s capability to absorb unexpected major shocks, handle and adapt to these, and then, most importantly, bounce back. As the pandemic still rages, endurance has become a major challenge for individuals, institutions, companies, and societies. It emphasizes another dimension of resilience: it is not only about how fast society is able to bounce back and recover at a certain moment, but also how it can withstand repeated shocks over time.

How Russia, China, and climate change are shaking up the Arctic

By Larry Luxner

The Kremlin’s increasing military activities in the Arctic are worrying Norway—the only NATO member country that borders Russia north of the Arctic Circle. Frank Bakke-Jensen, Norway’s minister of defense, outlined his concerns.

The Arctic is a place of unusual international cooperation. Can that last?

By Larry Luxner

For decades, Norway’s policy towards neighboring Russia has balanced “between deterrence and reassurance” and combined “firmness and predictability,” says Ine Eriksen Søreide, the country’s minister of foreign affairs. “This policy remains unchanged. But it has become an ever more challenging task in the face of a steadily deteriorating security environment.”

Set NATO’s sights on the High North: NATO 20/2020 podcast

By James Danoy and Marisol Maddox

Security in the Arctic is waiting on no one. NATO needs a strategy for defense and deterrence in the High North before it is outflanked.

European leadership: Transatlantic relations and the future of Belarus

The Atlantic Council Northern Europe Office organized a webinar on the topic of ”European Leadership: Transatlantic relations and the Future of Belarus”.

Event recap | At the crossroads of emerging technologies and security during the pandemic

By Henry Westerman

On Thursday, December 3, the Embassy of Finland and the Atlantic Council’s GeoTech Center convened a partially public, partially private roundtable to discuss the impact technology on contemporary society, politics, and transatlantic relations. The roundtable sought to consider specific policy steps that could build trust in governments, corporations, and technologies alike, both in the United States and Europe, so as to overcome the numerous technological challenges of the present and issues poised for the future.