The end of Sweden’s drawn-out accession to NATO signifies the completion of the Baltic region’s political transformation and strategic reconfiguration. Both processes were accelerated by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which has recently crossed the two-year mark, and in both transitions, Russia loses. The value of Russia’s longstanding economic ties and political influence in the region is lost entirely, and its capacity to project military poion is in the making, and the Russian army’s offensive capabilities continue to be diminished on the Ukrainian battlefields. These shifts in European security may appear to make the Northern European political and military leaders’ persistent…