Helsinki Syndrome: The Parachronistic Renaissance of Finlandization in International Politics (original) (raw)
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The attack against Ukraine is yet another show of how sovereignty is, in reality, determined much as it was before World War I—by those powerful enough to impose how we see and understand world politics, even if today its façade is that of the nation-state. Behind this nation-state façade lie imperial structures that reveal the coloniality of sovereignty—that is, how sovereign power is unequally distributed, falsely attributed to national self-determination, yet legitimized through a rhetoric of nation-statehood, and thereby subject to manipulation.
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This work aims to trace the evolution of Finnish-Russian relations, starting with Finland's independence (1917) and ending with the present day. Particular attention is paid to the second post-war period, during which the Finnish country, following a reversal of its traditional policy towards the East, experienced so-called Finlandisation. Outlining the singular characteristics of the relationship between the two countries during the twentieth century allows us to better appreciate the new change of course that the Finnish leadership has recently made towards Moscow: In fact, in the face of an improvement in its relative position vis-à-vis its cumbersome neighbour, and following its entry into the European Union, Helsinki now seems to have abandoned the policy of conciliation that - shared by representatives of the entire parliamentary arc, and remaining a fundamental assumption of Finnish foreign policy strategies for over forty years - was now becoming part of the Finnish national identity itself.
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The Finnish ‘westernizing’ narrative emphasizes Finland’s ‘westernness’, i.e. the idea that Finland and Finns have always been western and part of the ‘European family’. The recent past is not seen as an obstacle for this interpretation. Thus, according to this type of discourse, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and ‘liberated’ from the constraints of the Cold War, Finland could finally ‘return’ to the West, to Europe, to its ‘natural’ origins. This article examines in short what might be called the post-Cold War narrative of Finnish westernness as it appears in the English language sources. It argues that the westernizing narrative is very important in justifying Finland’s post-Cold War position in the international politics, especially its position in the European politics. The article is divided in two parts. The first one examines the narrative of the westernness of Finland, Finns or Finnish ‘identity’ as it appears in some scientific writings, press materials and politic...
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies, 2020
In recent years, Finland has closely cooperated with NATO and Finnish politicians emphasize that Finland may consider joining the Alliance at any point. However, this step is unlikely in the foreseeable future. Russia’s aggressive actions abroad disconcert Finland; as this article shows, even after Russia’s war with Georgia and the breakout of the crisis in Ukraine, the situation is not deemed serious enough by the Finns for them to risk a serious deterioration of relations with their eastern neighbor. Rather than crossing the interests of Moscow, whose perception of the world Finland has been able uniquely to understand thanks to its historical experience, the country opts for a more complex, yet also safer, path of balancing between ever-closer cooperation with NATO, and maintaining the status of a non-member country.
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