January 2026 - Nordic Defence Review

The Bomb Is Back: Allied Democracies Are Reopening the Nuclear File

For three decades, allied democracies treated nuclear weapons as an embarrassing inheritance: praise disarmament in public, renew the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT ) on schedule, condemn rogue proliferators, and quietly rely on the American umbrella to do the dirty work. That ritual is now fraying. From Sweden’s suddenly candid editorials to Japan’s reopened taboos and

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Bunker Books: How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt (2018)

Book Review

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s How Democracies Die shows how democracies are dismantled legally, incrementally, and often with public approval, by leaders who come to power through elections and then hollow the system out from within. The authors’ central argument is that since the end of the Cold War, most democratic breakdowns have not been

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A Danish coalition service member holds up a Danish flag to identify families during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Afghanistan After NATO: China’s Mineral Grab

Analysis, Diplomacy, Minerals

When the last US troops left Afghanistan in August 2021, Washington said it was ending a war, not abandoning a country. In practice, it did both. And in doing so, tilted the region toward Chinese influence. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland had all spent two decades backing the NATO-led operation in Afghanistan, politically, militarily, and

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Greenland Crisis: NATO at the Brink?

Diplomacy, Politics

President Trump’s bold bid to acquire Greenland has sent shockwaves through Europe and raised dire questions about NATO’s future. Danish PM Mette Frederiksen warned that a U.S. attack on a fellow NATO member “would be the end of everything – that includes NATO”. Even EU defence chief Andrius Kubilius agreed: a US military takeover of

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European Defence Stocks Surge on Greenland Rift and Rising Budgets

Analysis, Business

Investors in Europe’s defence industry are unintended winners from the Greenland drama, beyond Moscow and Beijing. Donald Trump’s threats towards Denmark have accelerated a trend already underway, as rising military budgets and doubts about the durability of US security guarantees push European arms makers to record valuations. Markets are treating rearmament less as a political

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Frontline Flicks: Black Book (Zwartboek, 2006)

Film Review

Few Second World War films are as gleefully cynical, morally unclean, and politically uncomfortable as Black Book. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, this Dutch-German-British production dismantles the comforting myths of resistance heroism and liberation justice, replacing them with betrayal, opportunism, and survival at any cost. It is one of the more honest cinematic portraits of how

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Global Crisis Hotspots in 2026: Escalations from Venezuela to Taiwan

Analysis, Crises, NDR Digest

Major powers are behaving as if enforcement is optional. The US operation in Venezuela is the most dramatic illustration so far this year. China’s Taiwan drills are the most consequential rehearsal. Russia’s Ukraine campaign is the costliest grind. Together, they create a world where risk is not a forecast. Risk is a policy choice. Analysts

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