New Nuclear Challenges in Europe and Beyond

Over the past few years, nuclear weapons have assumed renewed prominence in international
affairs. But today’s global security environment differs, in important ways, from the Cold War
and immediate post-Cold War periods. Russia’s military developments and perceived “saber
rattling”, the respective modernization programs of NATO’s “nuclear allies” (the United States,
France, and the United Kingdom), North Korea’s expanding nuclear capabilities, and uncertainties
regarding Iranian nuclear ambitions pose new challenges. Decades-long efforts to increase
strategic stability, reduce the size of nuclear arsenals, and prevent further proliferation of nuclear
weapons and their means of delivery are at risk. Finland’s security and prosperity increasingly
depend upon a stable and secure international environment, but new realities in the area of
nuclear weapons – in Europe and beyond — could affect that environment in profound ways.