Under threat, Sweden rediscovers its Viking spirit

 Swedish neutrality could be consigned to the history books after two centuries as the perceived threat from Russia, complete with warplanes flying overhead and a mystery submarine in the Baltic, prompts one of the world’s most pacifist countries to re-militarize.

In an election year, growing support for joining NATO is putting the center-left government of Prime Minister Stefan Löfven under pressure, with the four-party opposition bloc now united in backing membership of the military alliance for the first time…

The country has already reintroduced military service, which was scrapped in 2010, for a limited number of draftees who will be called up for compulsory basic training this year. It has decided to station troops on the Baltic island of Gotland for the first time in a decade, and boosted military spending by 2.7 billion Swedish kronor (€274 million) a year from this year through 2020.

The new emphasis on military preparedness follows a series of security incidents involving Russia. In 2014, Moscow’s decision to annex Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula spooked its neighbors in the Baltic Sea region, who feared that the border violations could become part of a wider pattern.