Minna Ålander 🌻
@alanderminna
Analyst @sceeus-ui.bsky.social at @uisweden.bsky.social | Associate Fellow @chathamhouse.org | @cepa.org Fellow | Council Member @ecfr.eu. 📸 Stas Kartashov 🎙️ co-host Mildly Alarmed ✍️ Northern Flank Notes:
Now they’ve done it… Mark Carney and Alex Stubb actually wrote ”middle powers of the world, unite!” 😅 Also, it should give Americans some pause that they basically suggest that Canada’s geographical predicament with its border with the US compares to Finland’s with Russia…
Denna bok var kul sommarläsning på semester i Skåne, för att Skåne har en kortare historia som en del av det svenska riket än Finland 😄
Always good to make it to the Arctic circle before the sun sets (before 8 July, that is). Pic taken at midnight a couple sunny nights ago
Just came across this older @ecfr.eu publication that is still very (or even more) topical. And look at this. It’s beautiful ecfr.eu/publication/...
Last night once again a massive attack on Kyiv, with a Russian strike package of 731 drones and missiles. Impressively, Ukrainian forces intercepted 693 but Kyivans still woke up to find a 9-storey building collapsed. More damage in other parts of the country.
The second episode of Mildly Alarmed is out ! In which we discuss European security from various perspectives, @frhoffmann.bsky.social outs himself as a Europtimist and I have an electricity blackout to keep things interesting. Also featuring the best @lapatina.bsky.social & @kaeggen.bsky.social
Because the world urgently needed another podcast, we got you covered: The Mildly Alarmed, a podcast on European security, featuring yours truly, @lapatina.bsky.social, @kaeggen.bsky.social & @frhoffmann.bsky.social is out ! In the first episode, we discuss the current state of affairs in Ukraine
Mildly alarming stuff happening with @lapatina.bsky.social @kaeggen.bsky.social & @frhoffmann.bsky.social ! Stay tuned !
When you’re looking for other information but end up finding great doggo content H/t to Lithuanian defence forces kariuomene.lt#!album112/ph...
Throwback Thursday (”The USA still believes the chaos in Iraq to calm down”, 26 October 2003)
A much-needed timeline cleanser: Some spectacular northern lights from my home town Rovaniemi last Friday night.
When we commend Ukrainians for their resilience, let’s not forget that nearly everyone has lost a loved one fighting for future generations of Ukrainians to get to live in freedom and dignity.
Back from 5 sunny days in Kyiv, where trees don’t have leaves yet after the exceptionally cold winter and the memorial for fallen soldiers has grown into a labyrinth. Yet no trace of war fatigue and Kyiv is as vibrant as ever
Demilitarised, but not disarmed: in Åland, nearly every second inhabitant possesses a firearm. The map shows number of firearms per 100 inhabitants, source: yle.fi/a/74-20215108
Tuoreessa V-Demin demokratiaindeksissä Suomen ja muiden pohjoismaiden välillä on 4 maata. Hälytyskellot soimaan ! Lisää indikaattoreita löytyy täältä, s. 48: www.v-dem.net/documents/75...
If Greczula had won in Sweden, the Nordics would have essentially all sent the same guy to ESC:
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.
For comparison, an estimate of Ukrainian losses. Source: economist.com/graphic-deta...
Putin is making Russia small again: ”Our model suggests that Russian casualties are now between 1.1m and 1.4m, of whom 230,000-430,000 are dead. That would mean one in 25 Russian men between the ages of 18 and 49 may have been killed or severely wounded since the start of the full-scale war.”
The most accurate analysis of the transatlantic dynamics at MSC I’ve seen so far:
Just finished ”Once We Had the Arctic” by Heikkilä Markku and I can’t recommend it enough. It spans the circumpolar Arctic and is rich in anecdotes that perfectly illustrate the facts that make it such a special place - not only a geography and climate, but a state of mind and a way of life.
When the 20-somethings that wrote the US National Security Strategy had to first ask AI what a ”strategy” is:
The plot keeps twisting. After having first said that the plan was Russian, not drafted by the US, Rubio a few hours later said the plan was drafted by the US, not Russia. This promises some interesting negotiations today
This would be great but it’s kinda funny that Germany would still have a small total force + reserve than Finland (wartime strength 280,000 and total reserve about 900,000) www.ft.com/content/6cbf...