Security in Northern Europe: Deterrence, Defence and Dialogue

NATO’s Northern members are increasingly concerned about Russia’s military activities. This Whitehall Paper contains perspectives from prominent authors across the region, showing how member states are responding, individually and collectively, to Moscow’s resurgence. Overall, it identifies the common but differentiated responsibility that member states have for security in the Alliance’s northern regions.

John Andreas Olsen is a colonel in the Royal Norwegian Air Force, currently assigned to London as defence attaché. He is also a visiting professor at the Swedish Defence University and a non-resident senior fellow of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. His previous assignments include tours as director of security analyses in the Norwegian Ministry of Defence, deputy commander at NATO Headquarters at Sarajevo, dean of the Norwegian Defence University College and head of the college’s division for strategic studies. Olsen is a graduate of the German Command and Staff College and has served as liaison officer to the German Operational Command and as military assistant to the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin. He has a doctorate from De Montfort University and a master’s degree from the University of Warwick. Olsen has published several books, including Strategic Air Power in Desert Storm (2003); John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power (2007); A History of Air Warfare (2010); The Evolution of Operational Art (2011); Global Air Power (2011); The Practice of Strategy (2012); Air Commanders (2012); Destination NATO (2013); European Air Power (2014); Airpower Reborn (2015); NATO and the North Atlantic (2017); Airpower Applied (2017) and Routledge Handbook of Air Power (2018).