LMC 2024

Can We Turn the Baltic Sea into a NATO Lake?

The Baltic Sea is an important trade corridor for all the countries around it and several pieces of critical infrastructure run on its bottom. When Finland and Sweden decided to join NATO, several people expressed their delight with the decision by referring to the Baltic Sea a NATO lake. However, as recent incidents with undersea infrastructure show, these calls might be overly optimistic. In September 2022, the Nord Stream pipelines were ruptured by an attack and in October 2023 a gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland was damaged along with several communication cables. Can we use the momentum created by Finland and Sweden’s accession to look more seriously at the security of the Baltic Sea? What can be done to protect ourselves from hybrid attacks?