Page 51 - North Atlantic and Nordic Defense

North European and North Atlantic Defense: The Challenges Return

The same question never seems to go away.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/11/20/could-russias-new-nuclear-weapons-win-world-war-
iii/#117d4eb541f4

SHAPING A WAY AHEAD FOR FORCE MODERNIZATION AND ENHANCING
DETERRENCE IN DEPTH

Norway: A Model for NATO’s Northern Tier
By Robbin Laird

Breaking Defense, March 9. 2017

https://breakingdefense.com/2017/03/norway-a-model-for-natos-northern-tier/

Norway faces the challenge of crafting a national defense strategy for the 21st strategy in the face of Vlad
Putin’s more aggressive Russia.
Because Putin thinks through his use of military power and designs limited objectives to achieve what he
considers in the best interest of Russia, Norway faces a double challenge: how to defend itself against the
Russian threat and how to work with allies who are not very good at designing limited objectives for the use
of military power.
Complicating all this is the fact that Norway’s allies are all in transition: Brexit Britain, Trump America, and an
increasingly uncertain European Union. France and with Germany both face crucial elections and significant
uncertainty about their economic, political and security futures.

FIGURE 15 FIRST NORWEGIAN F-35 LANDS AT LUKE AFB. CREDIT; USAF
As Norwegian Minister of Defense, Ine Eriksen Søreide put it recently: “It seems we may have arrived at a
time in history where the liberal democracy, as we know it, is facing one of its most serious challenges to date.
The very framework of a stable Europe and transatlantic relationship is under pressure.”

Within this context, Norway is focused on ways to enhance national security and ways to work with
allies. They are doing so with military forces is significant transition as well – the purchase of the F-35 is seen
as a key lever for change, much more than any other single asset, but it is part of a process not an additive
platform.

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