Title: Non-Alignment and Neutrality from a Nordic Perspective
Headings: Non-Alignment and Neutrality from a Nordic Perspective
Non-Alignment and Neutrality from a Nordic Perspective
From Neutrality to Non-aligment
The President and the People as Obstacles to NATO Membership
New Members Joining the ”Old NATO”
The Dispute over Energy is a Dispute About Money
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Content: An ideology that could challenge, let alone have the capacity to subvert, the whole Western system based on liberal market economy, does not exist anymore. On the contrary, the countries of Eastern Europe, including Russia, want to enjoy the fruits of the capitalist system. Rather than being an ideological conflict, the problems in bilateral relations between Russia and Western Europe can better be described as a conflict of interests. This conflict has crystallized on the EU side around questions of supply of energy and on the Russian side around the price it can get from selling oil and gas to the rest of Europe. Despite all the changes, militarily non-aligned countries still exist in Europe. Although the old confrontation has ceased almost two decades ago, the same countries which previously declared themselves neutral now describe themselves as militarily non-aligned. The question is why, and non-aligned in relation to whom? Clearly, one cannot speak of the old neutrality, because Finland, Sweden, Austria and Ireland, as members of the European Union, participate in the Union’s common security and defence policy. They, as is the case with any EU member, cannot be neutral in a conflict between EU and a third party. Moreover, these four countries, along with Switzerland, participate actively in NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program.