Sweden has the tanks. Finland has the troops. Welcome to the Pan-Nordic Army.

Copyright © HT Digital Streams Limit all rights reserved. Sune Engel Rasmussen, The Wall Street Journal 5 min Read 21 Apr 2025, 12:28 pm ist in Sweden, military service is very selective, making it an elite pursuit. (Åsa Sjöström for the Wall Street Journal) Summary Nordic countries bring resources to counter Russia amid uncertain security guarantees of Trump’s White House. The Nordic countries were better known for their peace efforts and cozy life as militarism for a long time. Now they cast that persona. The Nordics emerged as a model for Europe’s defense. It is a leading attempts to reverse dozens of military withdrawals from counteracting both Russian aggression and uncertain safety guarantees of the Trump white house. The four most important Nordic countries are one of Europe’s leading donors of military assistance to Ukraine by the population, and has taken steps to introduce a new regional safety architecture that is less dependent on the US, and any Nordic country would struggle to lead to Russia on its own military. But combined, the Nordics have an economy about the size of Mexico, and almost the same size as Russia. After Sweden and Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, they put together some of their powers. Sweden boasts an advanced defense industry that makes submarines, battle tanks and supersonic jet fighters. Norway has maritime supervision and fighting capabilities in the Arctic. Finland has one of the largest standing armies and artillery forces per capita in Europe. And the special powers of Denmark have decades of experience in some of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan and Iraq to fight US wars. (The fifth Nordic country, Iceland, has no standing army or defense industry). “You have a regional group with the economic and resource potential to develop a fully integrated defense-industrial base such as Germany, but with a completely different kind of threat perception and political will,” said Eric Ciaramella, senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Think Tank and former senior US intelligence valid. The Nordics share historical cultural ties. In the Middle Ages, Scandinavian Vikings colonized and ruined throughout Europe and even reached North America. Centuries later, the Nordic countries fought bloody wars among themselves, with regional powers Denmark and Sweden fighting over the area and beheading each other’s Nobidies in the city square. Later, in a more conciliatory gesture, Sweden was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway, even after the two countries dissolved their union in 1905. Now, as a serious future threat, the shared Nordic view of Russia has drawn the countries closer together than at any point in modern history. In a recent Danish intelligence assessment, it is said that Russia can start a major war against one or more European NATO countries within three to five years, a view that can hinder more with the Baltic countries than other Western capitals. “The Nordic countries have a united security policy for the first time since the Kalmar Union in the 1400s,” said Jens Stoltenberg, the former NATO secretary general, who is now Norway’s finance minister. “They recognized the importance of immersing their military cooperation in a way we haven’t seen a few centuries.” The Nordics combined their air forces and established a joint Nordic air assignment in 2023. Last year, they set out a vision for common defense under the Nordic defense collaboration, or Nordefco. To be sure, the Nordics compensate for decades of disarmament after the end of the Cold War. The need to relocate has grown only in the midst of Europe’s faded confidence in the US as a reliable ally under President Trump. Nowhere is this realization more acutely felt than in Copenhagen, which is on the front line of Europe’s confrontation with Trump, after threatening to annex Greenland, a Danish area. Denmark’s protection of the Arctic island, which is three times as large as Texas, is largely dependent on seven outdated vessels so upset with weapons and sensors that they barely count as warships, and about a dozen elite soldiers drawn by dogs. Denmark’s decision in February to increase military spending by 70% in the next two years – including in Greenland – was “an expression of panic”, said Peter Viggo Jakobsen, associate professor at Royal Danish Defense College. “Denmark is against the clock because we have lost confidence in Americans. The reason why we have thrown ourselves in Nordic cooperation with such zeal is that we cannot protect ourselves. And if the NATO cannot do so, the Nordics is an alternative,” Jacobsen said. Identity shift while the call to weapon of the Nordics clashes with their global image, it is long in progress. Finland has one of Europe’s largest army per capita. It can mobilize 280,000 troops in weeks, and nearly one in six Finns, or about 900,000, are reservists. Underground shelters across the country can house approximately the rest of the population. Finland is now considering withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits antipers to land mines. Sweden is an engine of military innovation. Jas 39 Gripen Jet Fighters, designed to work on short runways and Russian aircraft, took part in a NATO supervision mission for the first time in March. Sweden’s BrididSVagn 122 is one of the world’s most advanced battle tanks, and its CV90 is one of the best infantry fog vehicles. Finland and Sweden have both compulsory service. In Sweden, military service is gender neutral and very selective, making it an elite pursuit. While other European countries are struggling to boost their ranks, Sweden’s armed forces are turning away thousands of young people each year. Norway, Long Criting for Undership, despite being sitting on the world’s largest $ 1.5 trillion sovereign team fund, while benefiting from Energie Prices pushed up by the Ukraine War, recently doubling Kyiv, to more than $ 8 billion in 2025. “It is a recognition that we need to do more to do the countries of the NATO, but also that we have to do a fair burden,”, but also that we must have a fair burden, “we must have a fair burden,”, but also that we have a fair burden Stoltenberg said. Denmark has become one of the hardest votes asking for the European re -movement. The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in March that she would not exclude the housing of nuclear weapons on Danish soil, a historical attitude shift. After donating all its artillery to Ukraine, Copenhagen devised a plan to finance contracts between the Ukrainian government and the country’s cash-respected defense firms to produce weapons adapted to its shifting battlefield needs-a approach called ‘the Danish model’. The Ukraine’s own defense industry is a sustainable way to add deterrence to Russia, while the US blocks the Ukrainian membership of NATO, says Anna Wieslander, director of Stockholm for Northern Europe in the Atlantic Council’s thinking tank. “Connecting our defense industries to each other is a very strong signal,” she said. Nordic roads may differ in the future. For example, while Denmark and Sweden are willing to contribute troops to a peacekeeping force after a ceasefire in Ukraine, Finland, with the 830 -mile border with Russia, is likely to keep soldiers at home. For the time being, a United Nordic Bloc can serve as a model for other groups of nations, such as around the Black Sea, says Matti Pesu, senior research fellow at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs. The model can also serve as an insurance policy for the future as the transatlantic alliance under Trump disintegrates, he said. “It’s a potential plan B if the NATO doesn’t work,” Pesu said. Write to Sune Engel Rasmussen on Sune.rasmussen@wsj.com, catch all the business news, market news, news reports and latest news updates on live currency. Download the Mint News app to get daily market updates. More Topics #News Mint Specials