The varying degrees and meanings of Nordicness in Finnish foreign policy

ABSTRACT

Geography and political history make Finland a borderline Nordic country: one that has not always self-evidently been part of the Nordic countries, but also a country for which being identified as Nordic has been all the more important. Finland has successfully used “Nordicness” as an instrument to recognition and influence internationally. Historically, the Nordic neighbours have been a reference group of outstanding value for the country, and a platform from which to approach particularly the UN. But in what sense would its foreign policy be “Nordic”? While some of the “exceptional” features of Nordicness, such as internationalism or solidarity, may well apply to Finland, the country has also stood out because of security political considerations. Perhaps more than the other Nordics, it would place security first and not place values before interests. At the same time, the importance of Nordic cooperation has considerably increased in security and defence policy, with strong support among the political parties and the public. This article aims at shedding light on the meanings of “Nordicness” in Finland and on its use as an instrument in foreign policy. It also discusses bilateral relations with Sweden as a special manifestation of “Nordicness”.

KEYWORDS:

• Finland
• Nordic countries
• foreign policy
• security
• interests

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Matleena Moisio and Ilmari Uljas for excellent research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 http://yle.fi/uutiset/us_think_tank_not_everyone_cares_for_the_nordic_know-it-all_attitude/6571358

2 Terje Röd-Larsen, President of IPI, François Carrel-Billiard, Managing Director, and Francesco Mancini, Senior Director of Research (and Rapporteur) produced the interview-based report of the International Peace Institute (IPI) at the request of the Foreign Ministry of Finland called “Taking stock, moving forward. Report to the Foreign Ministry of Finland on the 2012 Elections to the United Nations Security Council”. April 2013. International Peace Institute. https://www.ipinst.org/images/pdfs/130406-UNSC_Elections_Report_Final.pdf.

3 https://www.un.org/disarmament/ptnw/.

4 For instance, Sweden would have been more critical of the US than Finland, generally speaking (Möller & Bjereld, 2010).

5 The recent bilateral agreements and memoranda can be found at the Finnish Ministry of Defence website, https://www.defmin.fi/ajankohtaista/kansainvaliset_sopimukset.

6 The ABDI polls are available at https://www.defmin.fi/en/tasks_and_activities/media_and_communications/the_advisory_board_for_defence_information_abdi/bulletins_and_reports.

7 The authors are responsible for translations of the plenary debates and of those government reports not available in English (1995, 1997, 2001, 2009).In the 2015–2019 legislative term the government produced two reports, one on foreign and security policy and the other on defence policy.

8 Finnfund is a Finnish development finance company that provides long-term risk capital for private projects in developing countries.

9 Typical for the Nordic development policy thinking would be working through civil society organizations and the generous spending, made possible by an exceptionally large domestic consensus on the issue (this is Nordic exceptionalism in this field, according to Hansen, Gjefsen, & Lie, 2015).

10 See Elgström and Delputte (2016) for change in development policy, and Pedersen (2018) for new status-seeking through militarized activism and good relations with the US rather than traditional Nordic internationalism.