@alanderminna
Analyst @sceeus-ui.bsky.social at @uisweden.bsky.social | Associate Fellow @chathamhouse.org | @cepa.org Fellow. Plot twist: not from Åland. 📸 Stas Kartashov ✍️ Northern Flank Notes: https://open.substack.com/pub/minnalander
Nordic nuclear weapons politics rapidly changing:
Finland proposes legal changes to allow for transport of nuclear weapons if "coupled to military defense."
In Sweden, 5/8 political parties are open for the placement of nuclear weapons during wartime; peacetime placement is still ruled out.
Thank you for reading !
While the world is concerned about rising oil prices, Sweden is concerned about saffron prices.
Iran accounts for ~90% of the world’s saffron exports, which have now been halted.
Saffron is incredibly popular in Swedish holiday baked goods, as well as fish soup.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Deleting X and only posting on Bluesky was a great decision, not only because X seems to be a bad place but also because it’s so boring here.
My feed here is mostly middle aged men posting way too many very uninteresting details about their lives. Brings my scrolling time basically down to zero.
”In an age of blood-soaked realpolitik, Europe stands out. Yes, it is meek, a vegetarian in a world of omnivorous geopolitical rivals. [But i]f it is a sin to think that rules matter, the world could do with a few more sinners… the relative sanity found in Europe is a kind of defiance.”
Me saatiin toiseen käteen sotilaspassi ja toiseen ensimmäinen kertauskäsky. ”Kohta näemme taas.”
Europe is going to be ok.
(The change in French nuclear posture is a huge move, should cause some deep thinking in the UK).
”Indeed, having been strategically abandoned by the U.S. while suffering from American economic predation and possibly territorial aggression, they are likely to become hotbeds of anti-Americanism.”
So much losing. A recommended read by Robert Kagan
”The consequence of a newly unreliable and even hostile United States, therefore, will likely be significant military buildups by former allies. This will not mean sharing the burden of collective security, because these rearmed nations will no longer be American allies.”
Cat sleeping under a blanket
mood
ok, to open to my colleagues - what are the conceivable reasons why this and Natanz were not completely destroyed? if you want to go in after the fact to secure the sites, I can see less aggressive targeting but not if you are worried about rapid weaponization. 1/
Watching this is pretty embarrassing for the UK really. Decades of US interdependency and Euroscepticism coming crashing down on us while the Gaullists have the last laugh
The speech delivered yesterday by Marcone was the most significant update to French 🇫🇷 nuclear ☢️ deterrence policy in decades. It represents a major changes for France, #EU and especially #Nato s eastern wing, short 🧵 1/5
Getting your people ready for the upcoming war is not just about the hardware you have.
It's the images and emotions that bring passion and determination.
And boy, did the French delivered...
Day 1 of a new era .
Especially after that particular speech, this video is quite something
The Trump administration will draw down on US weapons stocks in EUCOM and PACOM to fight its war of choice in the Middle East.
The real US national security strategy lies in the revealed preferences.
Video stolen from the other platform via @sophiepedder.bsky.social
The French singing La Marseillaise in a nuclear submarine base is deeply symbolic.
France built its own independent nuclear deterrent after WWII to never again have to suffer a similar humiliation. Now France is offering to ”advance” that deterrent to other European countries.
Just have your own multiple use empty bottle and fill it up… you can do it for free at literally every airport in Europe
Bruno tells us to say ”nuclear backstop”. Sounds good to me
“A coal power station [is] a large single target that a single missile could take out,” says Jeff Oatham of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest energy company (...) “You would need around 40 missiles to do the equivalent amount of capacity damage at a wind farm.”
#EnergySecurity
e360.yale.edu/features/ukr...
For the NYT I called it a "nuclear backstop".
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/02/w...
Okay it’s called dissuasion avancée everyone !
It is once again time for this joke:
Tired: extended deterrence
Wired: dissuasion élargie
French nukes: It's hard to overstate how much of a sea change it is that countries such as the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Germany are open to talking with France about nuclear deterrence. We have been getting used to it — but it's a major, major shift.
