Sweden & Finland a Good Move?

The latest news out of Europe has it that Turkey has lifted its objection to Finnish and Swedish membership in NATO, a.k.a. the Atlantic Alliance. NATO makes decisions on the principle of unanimity, meaning the Turkish government could blockade the two new applicants because it claims they’re soft on Kurdish separatism. Evidently, Ankara extracted enough concessions from Helsinki and Stockholm to appease Turkish sentiment.So to all appearances, their admission to the alliance is a done deal. Let’s look at the cultural, geopolitical, and operational dimensions of adding new Nordic members to NATO’s northern rampart.
First, culture. Human nature being what it is, it often takes a sharp blow to jar individuals and groups out of long-accustomed ways of thinking, feeling, and doing. Few of us relish change. Wittingly or not, Vladimir Putin has shown how you break a cultural logjam overnight, in this case the culture of Finnish and Swedish neutrality. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has done just that—raising the specter of Russian hosts on the march anywhere along the Russian frontier with Western Europe, including, potentially, along Nordic borders.
The prospect of invasion and conquest almost instantly concentrated minds among the Baltic nations. No one wants to be a Russian satrapy.
U.S. Air Force colonel and strategist John Boyd would nod knowingly. Boyd urged fellow fighter pilots—and warriors from all domains—to seize control of the su …