Next month the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation – NATO – will be 75 years old, and at the end of February 2024 Sweden was given the full green light to join it. 

NATO is a collective security organisation created shortly after the Second World War as one of the methods to counter the expansion of the Soviet Union (USSR). However, the USSR collapsed three decades ago, so why is NATO growing and why has Sweden waited nearly 75 years to join? 

The UK is one the founding member countries, and a long-time supporter of its activities, so we have decided now is a good time to help you understand a bit more about this organisation and its new member.

• Britain and the Formation of NATO (Historian article) - open access during March
• How Sweden almost became a nuclear-armed state – and why it didn’t (Historian article) - open access during March
• Sweden’s forgotten revolution (Historian article) - open access during March
• The spy who never spied (Historian article)
• Charles XII and the The Fall of the Swedish Empire (HA classic pamphlet)
• Why did the Cold War come to an end in the 1980s? (Podcast)