Nuclear Disarmament in a Nordic Perspective

This working group focuses on the Nordic states and the Baltic Sea region, examining how nuclear arms control, non-proliferation, and disarmament are affected by recent geopolitical shifts, most notably Russia’s war in Ukraine and NATO’s enlargement. To provide crucial context, the group also looks at NATO as a whole as well as international developments in nuclear weapons policy.

Within these parameters, WG6 aims to define future research agendas and address key gaps in existing knowledge. A central priority is ensuring that the work is relevant to practitioners and analysts. To this end, WG6 works closely with the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority.

WG6 brings together experts in diplomacy, history, international relations, and political science, offering a wide range of perspectives on nuclear issues. The groups findings are disseminated through international journals and books, presented at academic conferences, and shared at workshops and meetings with NGOs and governmental organizations.

Primary Research topics

  • NATO and the role of nuclear weapons
  • Nuclear arms control and prospects for disarmament in the Nordic region
  • The NPT Regime. Historical legacies and contemporary challenges

Dr. Thomas Jonter is Guest Professor at the Alva Myrdal Centre (AMC), Uppsala University.

He has a PhD in History from Uppsala University and a degree in Organisational Leadership (Postgraduate Diploma) from University of Oxford. Before Jonter joined the AMC, he was professor of International Relations at the Department of Economic History and International Relations, Stockholm University. At Stockholm University, he served as Head of Department 2006-2009 and 2016-2020 and was director of the Stockholm University Graduate School of International Studies at SU, 2013-2016.

Since 2024, he leads WG6 at the AMC. Dr. Jonter has also been a visiting researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Stanford University and Cornell University. He is also chair of the Swedish Pugwash group.

Jonter's research is focused on disarmament policy, nuclear non-proliferation and NATO's enlargement in a Nordic perspective. He has published a number of books and articles and received the 2019 Atomic Bomb Diploma from Swedish Physicians Against Nuclear Weapons for, amongst other things, the book The Key to Nuclear Restraint. The Swedish Plans to Acquire Nuclear Weapons, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). He is on the editorial board of Global Nuclear Histories, McGill-Queen's University Press and is an advisor to the research program Nuclear Knowledges, Sciences Po, Paris.

Thomas Jonter

Working group members

  • Alexander H. Montgomery, Professor of Political Science at Reed College
  • Emma Rosengren, Research Fellow, Swedish Institute of International Affairs’ Programme for Global Politics and Security and Department of Economic History, Stockholm University
  • Hassan Elbahtimy, Senior Lecturer, Department of War studies, King’s College London
  • Hebatalla Taha, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Lund University
  • Henrik Stålhane Hiim, Head of Centre for International Security, Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies
  • Jakob Hallgren, Director, Swedish Institute of International Affairs
  • Jennifer L. Erickson, Political Science Department and International Studies, Boston College
  • Kjølv Egeland, Senior Researcher, NORSAR, Norway
  • Luis Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of International Security & Law, George Mason University
  • Matthew Bunn, James R. Schlesinger Professor of the Practice of Energy, National Security, and Foreign Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School
  • Tapio Juntunen, Senior Lecturer in political science, University of Tampere

Collaborators

  • Swedish Institute of International Affairs
  • Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
  • Swedish Radiation Safety Authority

Publications

A selection of publications from Working Group 6 are listed below in chronological order.

2025

2024

  • Thomas Jonter, "Sweden: Nuclear Acquisition or Disarmament" in Lottaz, Pascal & Iwama, Yōko (red.), Neutral Europe and the Creation of the Nonproliferation Regime: 1958-1968, Routledge, Abingdon, England, 2024.

  • Bell, M. S. (2024). The Russia-Ukraine War and Nuclear Weapons: Evaluating Familiar Insights. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 1–15.

  • Emma Rosengren & Tapio Juntunen. 2024. Naturalising nuclear deterrence. A comparative analysis of Finnish and Swedish discourses on nuclear weapon politics, 2016-22 Nordic Review of International Studies

  • Mark S. Bell (2024). Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose: The Old Lessons about Nuclear Weapons being Re-Observed in Ukraine. H-Diplo.

  • Thomas Jonter & Emma Rosengren (2024). Advocating Nuclear Disarmament as NATO Members — Lessons from the Past and Possible Routes ahead for Finland and Sweden. H-Diplo.

  • Thomas Jonter and Emma Rosengren (2024). "Sverige, kärnvapen och nedrustning: Är nedrustningspolitik fortsatt förenlig med ett NATO-medlemskap?" In Linus Hagström (Ed.), Är Sverige säkert nu? Perspektiv på Nato och svensk säkerhetspolitik. Carlsson förlag.

2022

  • Rosengren, E. 2022. Alva Myrdal and Disarmament in a Man’s World. In: Wallensteen, P., Bekaj, A. (eds) Alva Myrdal: A Pioneer in Nuclear Disarmament. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 31. Springer, Cham.

  • Jonter, T. 2022. In the Game of Disarmament. In: Wallensteen, P., Bekaj, A. (eds) Alva Myrdal: A Pioneer in Nuclear Disarmament. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 31. Springer, Cham.

Contact

  • For questions about the working group's research and activities:
  • Thomas Jonter

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