Sweden and Finland do not need the protection, writes Lieven, 'but it will be the nail in the coffin of European autonomy and any future relations with Russia.'
Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Union was a military superpower, it occupied most of central Europe, its troops were stationed in the heart of Germany, and Soviet Communism— for a while at least — seemed to be a genuine threat to Western capitalist democracy. Throughout those decades however, Finland and Sweden remained officially neutral.
Since the end of the Cold War, Russia retreated a thousand miles to the east while NATO and the EU expanded hugely. Today, Russia’s ground forces are in the process of demonstrating in Ukraine that they are incapable of posing any serious threat to NATO or Scandinavia. Nor did they really do so previously. To get at Sweden, Russia would have to cross either Finland or the Baltic Sea. And both during and after the Cold War, Moscow never threatened Finland.
NATO membership for Sweden and Finland is therefore unnecessary for their security. They for their part bring nothing to NATO. If — God forbid — the war in Ukraine brings about an escalation to war between the United States and Russia, they will be on the side lines in any case.
Finnish and Swedish accession to NATO may also be seen to have marked the symbolic moment when European countries as a whole abandoned any dream of taking responsibility for their own continent, and resigned themselves to complete dependence on Washington. However, this dependence will doubtless be masked by impotent European whines and snarls when a new Trump-like president forgets the requisite thin pretense of courtesy and consultation.
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