Norway Ends Its Holiday From History

There was a time when Norway felt the Russian threat more acutely than most and shelled out large sums to keep the bear at bay.

That was the 1960s when the country spent a very significant 3.6% of GDP on defense. By 2014, during Europe’s so-called holiday from history, this had fallen by more than half to 1.4%. This was well below the NATO target of 2% and enough to make US politicians like former President Trump very angry.

Norway has woken up. In what the government termed a historic announcement in April...