Sweden has been famously neutral for centuries. In 19 39, they were invaded by the then soviet union. They've stayed out of the the world wars in europe. And this has been a long standing policy and unreally part of their identity. Finland is a little bit more complicated. During the cold war, they basically had to sit on the side lines,. not so much out of choice, but sort of out of necessity to keep the soviet Union from having any other adventures in finland. Then after the coldwar, both sweden and finland, in the 19 nineties, joined the european union. By joining europe they became alined