The United States now has bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreements with all five Nordic countries – Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland – as well as with other countries on NATO’s eastern flank, extending down to the Black Sea. These agreements enhance the military effectiveness of the political alliance commitment provided by NATO membership. They facilitate the development of certain defense-related infrastructure, such as the prepositioning of equipment, and promote more effective cooperation in terms of training, capability development, and defense and deterrence operations. […]
To understand why the United States wanted to sign these additional defense cooperation agreements with all Nordic countries – each involving explicit additional commitments – it is essential to adopt the perspective of a global power with a network of partners and allies, and multiple overlapping and competing interests and commitments. From the US perspective, these recent DCAs contribute to its own security and strengthen its security commitments in at least four different ways.
First, the Defense Cooperation Agreements significantly increase tactical and operational options for deterrence and defense. US and regional military planners are no longer as constrained by national borders, allowing plans to fully utilize dozens of basing options and the prepositioning of equipment. This can increase the resilience, speed, and effect of any deterrence or defense operation. The string of DCAs across NATO’s eastern flank, which the 2024 NATO Summit identified as facing “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security”, allows the United States and its Allies to create additional problems for Russian military planners. For example, by using long-range precision strike weapons to put Russian war-making assets at immediate risk from Murmansk to the Black Sea and from Kaliningrad to the Ural Mountains.
The DCAs enable the United States to draw up better plans, make preparations and, if necessary, conduct immediate operational-level deterrence and defense efforts at a sub-regional level with Nordic and Baltic Allies. This should alleviate concerns among countries south of the Baltic Sea about all Nordic countries eventually joining the Joint Force Command in Norfolk. The DCAs effectively help ‘sew up the seams’ between different NATO commands and defense plans. Läs artikel