Norway's Security Environment and Role in NATO

摘要

Political-security alignments on the Scandinavian Peninsula are quite complex - all three states located in this area (Norway, Sweden, Finland) are close partners and friends. Since 1949 Norway has been a member state of NATO but is not in the European Union (it decided to stay outside in two referendums in 1972 and 1994). At the same time both Finland and Sweden are in the European Union (they both joined in 1995), but they remain outside NATO, though both recently applied to join. All three states belong to the EU's Schengen zone, while Norway is associated with the EU through its membership of the European Economic Area (EEA).