After several decades of neutrality, Finland and Sweden seemed poised to join NATO, an American-led military alliance formed in 1949 during the heyday of Cold War, discarding their long-standing policy of neutrality, that is avoiding getting entangled in great power military competition.
On 4 May 2022, Finland and Sweden formally sent their joint application to NATO headquarters in Brussels for membership of the multilateral military alliance, citing Moscow’s ongoing war against Ukraine as the threat that prompted this shift.
