Read more about the article Sweden, Türkiye, and NATO: Rational choices leading to a breakdown in negotiations?
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Sweden, Türkiye, and NATO: Rational choices leading to a breakdown in negotiations?

Sweden’s NATO application looks as if it is on the cusp of derailing once more after 21 August comments from Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the context of Sweden’s NATO application, Erdoğan asserted that “Sweden must first of all take care of the streets of Stockholm. If they don’t take care of their streets, if these attacks on the things we hold sacred continue, then they shouldn’t blame us”. This statement follows a summer of Qur’an burnings that have soured Sweden’s relations with most of the Muslim world, Türkiye included, severely increased the risk of terror attacks on Sweden and motivated direct threats by militant Islamist groups. 

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14 September 2023
Read more about the article Playing the Long Game: Hungarian Parliament Continues to delay Sweden’s NATO Accession Bid
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Playing the Long Game: Hungarian Parliament Continues to delay Sweden’s NATO Accession Bid

On 28 June 2023, the Hungarian Parliament’s House Committee rejected a proposal to schedule a weekly plenary vote ratifying Sweden’s NATO membership bid (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 2023). Incidentally, this is the final week of the chamber’s spring session, meaning that Parliamentarians will not return until the ordinary autumn sessions start in late August or early September. Therefore, the only chance to vote on Stockholm’s accession to the alliance is through an extraordinary session, which may only convene upon a motion by the President, the Government or one-fifth of the Parliament’s members (Hungarian National Assembly, n.d.).

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14 July 2023
Read more about the article What Benefits and Disadvantages does Sweden and Finland get from NATO?
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What Benefits and Disadvantages does Sweden and Finland get from NATO?

This Info Flash will first examine the international relations between Sweden, Hungary, and Türkiye, which are tense since Sweden started its accession process to join NATO in the aftermath of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. With this context, the second part of the paper will conduct an analysis of the benefits and disadvantages for Sweden, Finland, and NATO itself in accepting these new member states.

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12 June 2023
Read more about the article Refusing a Second “Finlandization”? The Drivers and the Impact of Finland and Sweden’s NATO Membership on the Arctic Region
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Refusing a Second “Finlandization”? The Drivers and the Impact of Finland and Sweden’s NATO Membership on the Arctic Region

This Info Flash outlines the European security crisis, which has its roots beyond the unsolved issues with post-Soviet Russia and NATO enlargement towards the East of Europe. The current invasion of Ukraine shows that two opposing international concepts are on the battleground. The goal of this research is to investigate the reasons that led two of the most prominent European neutral nations – Sweden and Finland – to take sides in the current conflict between the two contrasting visions of the international order, joining the Atlantic Alliance. It is elaborated on a historical analysis of Finland and Sweden, which shows the lessons learnt from experiences in order to determine the present-day challenges that both face due to their geopolitical position in the Arctic region. In doing so, this paper aims to understand the past, present and future international arrangements involving the Arctic as the next battlefield where the two contrasting international order visions will collide. 

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2 March 2023
Read more about the article Sweden and Finland’s Accession to NATO
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Sweden and Finland’s Accession to NATO

The constant escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine led the Nordic countries to scale up their defence cooperation and preparedness, making Finland and Sweden take the decision to join NATO. On 18 May 2022, both countries handed their official letters of application to join the organization over to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and had their accession protocols signed on 5 July, after the completion of the pertinent accession talks (NATO Parliamentary Assembly, 2022). The protocols must now be ratified by all the Allies in accordance with their national procedures.

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23 December 2022