Security and Stability in Northern Europe

The enlargement of NATO and EU, as well as developments in Russia, provide new conditions for security in Northern Europe. This report aims at contributing to a renewed understanding of the strategic pattern in the northern European region - including the Nordic and Baltic states and Poland. The report deals with factors and actors - within and outside of the region - influencing this pattern. The report highlights on what grounds the actors form their security policy, how they articulate their interests, and what challenges they foresee. It is understood that a common long range interest of the countries in the region is to maintain - by sustaining an ability to function as security providers - a credible regional stability in a changing strategic pattern. The report discusses such significant security policy frictions that could arise. Future possible situations are hinted at, inter alia, where the ability of the countries in the region to check a crisis development is insufficient and where the common organisations NATO and EU have not yet entered in support of the region. Various forms for a possibly increased cooperation and integration in the region are touched upon as well.