As a result of recently proposed reforms, the Russian Navy’s four fleets—Pacific, Northern, Baltic and Black Sea—as well as the Caspian Flotilla would become directly subordinate to the central headquarters of the Russian Navy, as they were prior to the military reforms of 2009–2012, instead... MORE

The Russian Navy’s participation in the war against Ukraine has been mostly limited to the Black Sea Fleet and Caspian Flotilla. Yet, even with these limitations, Russia has still lost one of its five cruisers and several ships of other types during the conflict (see... MORE

Sweden’s security dilemma has worsened in recent years due to Moscow’s increasingly aggressive behavior as demonstrated by Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2018, its invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014, and its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The consequences of potential Russian... MORE

The Turkish government insists that Sweden significantly change its permissive approach to the Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan (PKK, or Kurdish Workers’ Party) and other anti-Turkey groups as a condition for Ankara’s approval of Stockholm’s application for NATO membership. Western commentators have attributed the position of the... MORE

Introduction Only a short time ago, considerable enthusiasm existed in Finland regarding Beijing’s efforts to forge an “Arctic corridor” of railroads and undersea tunnels, satellite ground stations, an airport for scientific expeditions, and massive biorefineries. In this, Finland was not alone but represented only a... MORE

On Monday, September 26, European media reported a significant loss of pressure in the Nord Stream Two pipeline. Shortly thereafter, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson reported that a number of explosions had been recorded. Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden confirmed that they had registered the... MORE

At the end of September 2022, four separate leaks were reported on the Nord Stream One and Nord Stream Two pipelines (Svd.se, September 29). Based on preliminary evidence, the damage was deemed to be caused by deliberate acts of sabotage and not resulting from natural... MORE

On August 30, eight Baltic Sea littoral countries (Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark) signed the so-called Marienborg Declaration, agreeing on the necessity of “phasing out Russian energy and decarbonizing the energy sector” within the region (Regeringen.dk, August 30). The document itself... MORE

As a reaction to Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden abandoned their long tradition of military non-alignment to seek security through membership in NATO. Both countries submitted their membership applications to NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on May 18, 2022. While the overwhelming majority... MORE

As the self-styled Islamic State (IS) “caliphate” collapsed in March 2019, the international community was faced with the problem of more than 70,000 IS family members stranded in Syria. The Kurdish Peshmerga gathered these family members into camps in northeastern Syria. Currently, these camps still... MORE