Edoardo Lavezzo
Ever since the Crimean Crisis in 2014 until the recent Ukraine-Russian war, the European Union (EU) has focused on absorbing the security threat, but in doing so, it has failed to clarify how its most important members, often referred to as middle powers, have embraced a specific status. Explaining the core characteristics of a European middle power, the paper uses a framework based on the Lockean and Kantian models of Harijanto to compare how Sweden and Poland evolved their security and defence posture from 2015 to 2025. In response to the evolution of European security after the eruption of the war in Ukraine, Sweden and Poland have presented different characteristics as middle powers belonging to the same supranational institution. Using a qualitative methodology retrieved from middle-power literature, the paper examines the behavioural, functional, identity, and positional characteristics of Poland and Sweden. In particular, the analysis judges their status as either preserver or reformer of EU security. Comparing the security and defence posture of these two European states, the analysis concludes that while Poland has reached the status of a Lockean status quo country, Sweden has turned into a Kantian status quo state.