Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, NUPI 30d ago

What does the Northern European security landscape look like today, and what is really bringing the Nordic countries closer together on defence? In this seminar, postdoctoral fellow Gabriella Gricius visits NUPI to present her forthcoming book on just that. In this seminar, Gabriella Gricius (University of Konstanz) presents her forthcoming book on the transformation of the Northern European security environment since 2022. In the book, Gricius observes that Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Finland and Sweden's subsequent accession to NATO have fundamentally altered the strategic geography of Northern Europe. Yet the deepening of Nordic defence cooperation cannot be explained by these events alone. Drawing on defence and foreign policy documents across all five Nordic states, a dataset of intra-Nordic military exercises from 2014–2025, and interviews with Nordic defence officials and experts, Gricius argues that understanding Nordic defence cooperation requires a more nuanced and historically grounded account – one that takes seriously how security communities form and endure through both discursive and material dimensions. Following the presentation, Karsten Friis (NUPI) and Håkon Lunde Saxi (Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College) will offer comments and reflections on the book, before the panel engage in a discussion. The event will also be live streamed on NUPI's YouTube channel (no registration needed for online participation). This seminar is organised as part of the project Power Politics and Security in the Arctic (POPSARC) financed by the Research Council of Norway. Speakers Gabriella Gricius, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Konstanz Karsten Friis, Research Professor, NUPI Håkon Lunde Saxi, Professor, Norwegian Defence Command and Staff College Chair Kristin Haugevik, Research Director, Research Professor, NUPI