Only a few Kurds stand between NATO and its Nordic expansion, while Biden has launched a special military operation in Somalia

(Originally published May 17 in “What in the World“) Finland’s decision Sunday to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will move to a vote in the country’s parliament, while Sweden’s ruling party—once staunchly in favor of maintaining neutrality—has said it will vote for NATO membership, too.

With Finland and Sweden now intent on joining NATO, Europe has entered a new era of combined commitment to military confrontation with Russia. NATO officials met over the weekend in Berlin to discuss the two countries’ potential membership, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the organization would fast-track their applications. Applications must be approved unanimously, however, so they’ll first need to overcome objections from Turkey, which has raised concerns about their support for Kurdish emigrés.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to backtrack on threats that NATO membership for Finland and Sweden could spark immediate reprisals, warning instead that any military buildup by NATO in the two countries would be met in kind. But academics say he could still resort to deploying a small, tactical nuclear weapon, if only to discourage continued Western military aid to Ukraine.

That aid continues to rise. The U.S. Army has meanwhile ordered up $309 million in new Javelin anti-tank missiles, which Ukrainian forces have been using to repel the Russian invasion. The new Javelins will go not only to Ukraine, but also to NATO members Albania, Latvia, and Norway, as well as to Thailand, according to Lockheed Martin, which makes the Javelins with Raytheon Technologies.

In Africa, meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden authorized a special military operation in Somalia, which will deploy roughly 700 special operations troops who will work in concert with air strikes to kill leaders of Al Shabab, the Islamic group that effectively runs the country and reportedly harbors ambitions to launch terrorist attacks against the United States.