Sweden became NATO’s newest member on Thursday (7 March 2024), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the Government of the United States in Washington DC. With Sweden’s accession, NATO now counts 32 countries among its members.
    • BombOmOm@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      1 年前

      Reignited the West’s arms industry as well! We had gotten complacent until Putin started the largest war in Europe since WWII.

    • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
      0·
      1 年前

      NATO membership comes with guarantees and responsibilities.

      The guarantee is that if Sweden would be attacked, other members will support with their troops. The responsibility is that Sweden must expand their military.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        0·
        1 年前

        The guarantee is that if Sweden would be attacked, other members will support with their troops.

        Allied guarantees are not something to rely on really. The de-facto participation was something more honest for expectations IMHO.

        The responsibility is that Sweden must expand their military.

        I don’t think that’s a problem for them, they never turned it into some bureaucratized rudimentary institution in the first place and they had a nice military during the Cold War.

      • REEEEvolution@lemmygrad.ml
        0·
        1 年前

        The former won’t happen. Sweden is sorrounded by friendly countries. The second is a downside for Sweden.

        So globally it is a nothing burger and locally it is a negative development for Sweden.

        • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
          0·
          1 年前

          Russia has Kaliningrad, which means they have access to Sweden through the Baltic Sea.

          There has been a concern that Russia wants to get Gotland. If they get Gotland, which is a good strategic island in the Baltic Sea. Now that island is under NATO.

                • magic_lobster_party@kbin.run
                  0·
                  1 年前

                  Based on Russian presence in the Baltic Sea the past few years. There has even been reports of Russian exercises training to use nuclear warheads against Sweden. Lots of military exercises in Sweden has been stationed in Gotland due to its strategic importance. I’ve heard it be jokingly called “Sweden’s largest aircraft carrier”.

                  I’m a Swede, and it has been quite frequent with news about Russian presence the past decade or so. The sentiment has for a long time been that Sweden should remain neutral despite all these threats. This sentiment changed by the invasion of Ukraine when it became clear Russia is ready to attack non-NATO members in Europe.

        • SwagGaribaldi@lemmy.zipEnglish
          0·
          1 年前

          Brother, you are literally falling for misinformation.

          First of all, there are not nearly that many NATO bases. The image is completely false.

          Secondly, the second image is misleading. In the wake of the formation of East Germany, 10% of its population were former Nazi party members. A third of its public administration were members of the NSDAP. The public officials didn’t just disappear overnight.

          Tankies (then and now) like to perpetuate this myth that East Germany was a successful Nazi-free society while West Germany was a Nazi stronghold despite the overwhelming evidence against it.

            • Enoril@jlai.lu
              0·
              1 年前

              Why do you expect to be treated like a Human by someone you’ve just insulted in the worse way (in a very uneducated way)?

              If someone called me nazi (knowing my direct family figthed against and some family members die doing it), i would certainly not bother to look at its profile and try to be nice by using the rigth pronoums. You can’t expect being treated nice while shitting dog shit on people face.

              If you act like a garbage bin, assume it.

  • Troy@lemmy.ca
    0·
    1 年前

    We (the western world) really needs to deal with Orban eventually. At least when other countries kept re-electing someone (like Merkel), you had the confidence that the system still allowed someone else to be elected and democracy was still working.

    Turkey might be a lost cause.

    Term limits should really be a default position if one is to defend their democracy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_state_leaders_by_date_of_assumption_of_office – the two NATO members causing issues? Two longest serving heads of state within NATO (excluding ceremonial monarchs).

      • sheogorath@lemmy.world
        0·
        1 年前

        That is an L take. Having a term limit helps increase the difficulty of making political dynasties. It doesn’t make it impossible, but it sure is gonna make it harder for a certain person or group to solidify their power base.

      • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
        0·
        1 年前

        Not really, the difference between two people of the same ideology to fulfill your democratic needs whom one can find in a population of a few million can be very small.

          • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
            0·
            1 年前

            Doesn’t change the fact that banning people from running for election is inherently undemocratic.

            Something being democratic is not the only criterion, because you wouldn’t want your neighbors to vote in favor of collectively owning you as a slave, even if your vote against gets counted.

            It’s just one safety measure - if a politician still would win an election after 8 years (life changes entirely in only 1 year), for example, that’s likely for wrong reasons. Like using administrative resource, pro-government mass media, crooked elites etc.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      1 年前

      I blame the fact they built all these institutions with no clause to expel members, or which require total unanimity to do so. They really bought in to the whole “end of history” thing, I guess.

      • Troy@lemmy.ca
        0·
        1 年前

        Yeah, this is an interesting element. Historically, allowing all members a veto, while also having no way to expel a member, means that any such institution is liable to outside meddling. The classic example is the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberum_veto – in the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, any noble could veto anything. So all it took was buying a few nobles and it shattered.

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
          0·
          1 年前

          Apparently, based on that Wikipedia article, they also ended up making a new version with less strict veto rules, called the confederated sejm, which is where I expect all these Western institutions to go eventually. TIL.

    • ComradeChairmanKGB@lemmygrad.ml
      0·
      1 年前

      We (the western world) really needs to deal with Orban eventually.

      Incredible display of chauvinism. Cause it’s worked out so well every other time you Westside have stepped in to decide another countries leadership for them. Stfu and stay home before you collapse yet another nation and restart the slave trade there.

  • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
    0·
    1 年前

    Irasshaimase~ er, welcome! This isn’t really that big of news imo, they were pretty much already a member kinda.