Europe Drills Its Citizens for the New Cold War
The Nordics and Baltics are leading the way by stockpiling grain, testing payment systems and getting households to store emergency rations.
A Finnish soldier of the Karelia Brigade during the NATO Exercise Dynamic Front, near Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, on Nov. 17.
Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty ImagesAt 9 a.m. on Nov. 18, Finland launched a new website to show people how to last 72 hours in the event of a crisis or conflict. The same Monday, Sweden began mailing updated leaflets to its 5.2 million households urging a “greater emphasis on preparing for war.”
The two initiatives were the latest responses by NATO’s newest members to a more dangerous world, and they came on the eve of a sharp reminder of what that means. A day later, Ukraine fired American missiles into Russia for the first time, taking their war into a new phase.