The Strategic Role of Land Power on NATO's Northern Flank

• Author: Njord Wegge
• Position: Norwegian Defence University College, Norway
• Pages: 94-113

© 2022 Njord Wegge. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

License. eISSN 2387-4562. https://arcticreview.no.

Citation: Njord Wegge. “The Strategic Role of Land Power on NATO’s Northern Flank” Arctic Review on Law and Politics,

Vol. 13, 2022, pp. 94–113. http://dx.doi.org/10.23865/arctic.v13.3428

Arctic Review on Law and Politics

Vol. 13, 2022, pp. 94–113

94

*Correspondence to: Njord Wegge, e-mail: nwegge@mil.no

Peer-reviewed article

The Strategic Role of Land Power on

NATO’s Northern Flank

Njord Wegge

Norwegian Defence University College, Norway

Abstract

The debate about how to defend NATO’s northern ank is closely connected to geographic par-

ticularities, the demanding Arctic climate, as well as to ever-evolving technological developments.

This research article aims at investigating the role land power plays in this region, with a special

focus on northern Norway. Through investigating how structure and composition of land forces

matter at the political-strategic level, as well as the role played by allied land forces in Northern

Norway, this article seeks to better connect the ongoing debate about the structure of land forces in

northern Norway to the political-strategic level. The article seeks to answer the research question

by using historical sources and ofcial military documents, as well as qualitative interviews.

Keywords: Arctic, military power, strategy, land power

Responsible Editor: Sigbjørn Halsne, Norwegian Defence University College,

Norway

Received: August 2021; Accepted: January 2022; Published: March 2022

Introduction

The debate about how to defend NATO’s northern ank is closely connected to geo-

graphic particularities, the demanding arctic climate, as well as ever-evolving technolog-

ical developments. This debate has primarily been a professional military debate, where

the maritime dimension has taken centre stage, often focusing on questions about the

challenges posed by Russia’s evolving military force posture in the north and NATO’s

military preparedness to meet challenges from the east. In this discussion, technological

innovation and new battle concepts have informed, and sometimes changed, opera-

tional and strategic planning in the West. In addition, one should note that parallel

debate has taken place in both NATO and domestically in NATO’s northern ank

The Strategic Role of Land Power on NATO’s Northern Flank

95

state, Norway, a debate which has centered around how to keep a balance between

deterrence and the need to provide reassurance to their neighbour in the east.1,2

This research article aims to investigate the role land power plays on NATO’s north-

ern ank, with a special focus on Northern Norway. This is a dimension that has received

less attention in the literature, as NATO’s northern area of responsibility largely stands

out as a maritime ank.3–5 Against this backdrop, it is important to improve our knowl-

edge on the strategic role the land power component represents in this region. Speci-

cally, this article seeks to answer the following research question: What is the strategic

role of land power on NATO’s northern ank, and to what degree or in what

way does its structure and composition matter at the political-strategic level?

In asking this question the article acknowledges the importance of discussing

operational concepts and force structure, while also integrating this professional

military debate into a more overall assessment of how land power capabilities and

ghting ideas inuence the political-strategic level. Finally, this research focus will

also encompass an assessment of the role of Norwegian land forces as a part of the

potential combined allied force posture in Norway in peace, crises and war.

Background

Norway was one of the founding members of NATO in 1949. Hence, during the Cold

War Norway was integrated, and involved in, the western bloc’s collective defense,

preparing for a massive, and potentially existential war with the Soviet Union.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, questions about security in

the Norwegian/Russian border region changed, and soon started to include societal

issues and environmental problems, including the mounting problem of radioactive

waste from de-commissioned nuclear submarines on the Kola peninsula.6,7 How-

ever, in the last 10–15 years, and particularly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in

2014, the traditional dimensions of security in the Arctic, including NATO’s north-

ern ank, have re-emerged.8

The renewed debate on how to defend NATO’s northern ank has, as mentioned

above, often focused on the strategic air and sea power component of operational and

strategic planning.9–11 With respect to discussions on the land-power dimension, this

aspect has sometimes been actualized through the execution of high-prole NATO

exercises in Norway. Another example would be the discussions related to the rota-

tional presence of US troops in central and Northern Norway the last few years.12,13

In addition, thorough studies of the planned territorial defence of Northern Norway

during the Cold War have also been released in the last two decades.14 These are

studies of – perhaps – surprisingly high relevance today, as many of the same unique

geographical and climatic challenges are just as relevant today as they were during

the Cold War, despite technological innovations. This is perhaps especially true in

the land domain, where long distances, rugged terrain, cold temperatures and winter

darkness present the same friction and existential challenges for personnel on the

ground as they did generations ago.