Sweden maintained her neutrality. It therefore had to remain in good terms with the Soviet Union as the other allies had quit the partnership making it vulnerable to attack.
Dollar, and Wolff, (1988, p.551) states that Finland and Sweden are EU member states with advanced and high performing economies. Their military forces were not subordinated to the Warsaw Pact and they have accumulated considerable experience in overseeing peacekeeping military action. Their regional security involvement is relatively stable when compared with the Balkans and South Caucasus. This will make them not to see joining NATO as an urgent strategy.
When the NATO established Partnership for Peace, İnan, and Yusuf (1999) states that the nations that had been neutral, decided to join it instead of NATO. Finland and Sweden joined PfP in 1994. The nations choose to cooperate with NATO through PfP and other related mechanism. This is because joining PfP as opposed to NATO meant that the members remains neutral and do not commit to the NATO security guarantee and other defense policies of the nation. Pourchot, (1997, p.160) states that governments had advocated for joining PfP and cooperating with NATO because NATO was seen as to address security challenges, cooperating, engaging in peacekeeping and in the development of armed forces.
Finland could have failed to join the NATO because of the regulations limits demanded by Russia. Vaahtoranta, and Forsberg.2000, (2000, p.11) states that Russia had set limits to Finland’s relationship with the western political and economic institutions. Finland did not have any possibility of integration with the West. Integration would only be in the East. Moscow set limits to Finland’s relationship with the Western polit...
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty signed on April 4 1949. The fundamental goal of NATO is to safeguard the freedom and security of its member countries by political and military means. NATO links North America and Europe by providing a forum in which the United States, Canada and European countries can consult together on security issues of common concern and take joint action in addressing them.
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During the late 1940's and the 1950's, the Cold War became increasingly tense. Each side accused the other of wanting to rule the world (Walker 388). Each side believed its political and economic systems were better than the other's. Each strengthened its armed forces. Both sides viewed the Cold War as a dispute between right and wron...
International organizations such as NATO and the UN are essential not only for global peace, but also as a place where middle powers can exert their influence. It is understandable that since the inception of such organizations that many crises have been averted, resolved, or dealt with in some way thro...
The North American Treaty Organizaion was create dby the U.S., Canada and ten other European countries. “The purpose of NATO was to defend countries from the Soviet Union”(Document 4). They helped maintain security in the North Atlantic area. The Soviet Union responded to NATO by creating an alliance themselves. They called this alliance the Warsaw Pact. “Warsaw Pact members were Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union”(Document 5). They saw NATO as a threat. The Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev had his own views as well. “Khrushchev believed the the U.S.’s capitalism would start a World War III”(Document 6). They believed that the U.S. would create another, even bigger World War than ever
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded in 1949 as a means of collective security for the West to defend against the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, NATO seemed to have lost a main reason for existing. As former Eastern Bloc nations expressed interest in participating in NATO operations or even joining, Russia became steadily uneasy. When evaluating their response to NATO expansion in the 1990’s, did Russia act in an offensive or defensive manner? J.L. Black presents a plethora of primary accounts of the years encompassing NATO expansion to give the reader an idea exactly what the Russian government was thinking at the time. It seems clear that NATO expansion caused Russia to act in a defensive manner in order to protect its own strategic interests. By looking at a history of Russia, Black highlights that the Russians have always faced the problem of being enclosed by the West. This is what caused Russia to reach out to “fringe” nations for collective security support. Black also shows how during the Kosovo Crisis, NATO overstepped their bounds in terms of to what extent they could solve the problem. Lastly, NATO expansion was the cause of increased Russian military spending in the last 1990’s.
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