As Sweden gets ready for NATO, will its approach to nuclear weapons change?

With Sweden and Finland on a fast track to become members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the consequences for Sweden’s traditional stance on disarmament issues are now becoming more obvious. Many voices asked for a debate on these issues before Sweden applied for membership, but it is not until now that signs of such public discussion have been broadly seen. Sweden’s new alignment raises several questions also on the international level.

In a letter of intent dated July 5, Sweden’s Foreign Minister Ann Linde wrote to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that “Sweden accepts NATO’s approach to security and defense, including the essential role of nuclear weapons, intends to participate fully in NATO’s military structure and collective defence planning processes and is willing to commit forces and capabilities for the full range of Alliance missions.”

For a country that, in the mid-1990s, told the International Court of Justice that “use of nuclear arms would not be in accordance with international law,” this shift of view on nuclear weapons is large. In his personal capacity, senior analyst Robert Dalsjö at Sweden’s Defence Research Agency summarized the shift in a tweet reading: “Now we take the step from the nursery to the adult world.”