Finland and Globalization
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Finland's unique relationship with Czarist Russia, the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation, has profoundly impacted Finland's foreign policies and ability to globalize. Finnish globalization was slowed by their necessity to remain neutral and not provoke their often xenophobic neighbor. Even with these barriers, Finland eventually became one of the most globalized nations in the world. Finland has come a long way in their political and global development.
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Finland: Global Realism vs. Complex Interdependence
Finland's development from newly formed agricultural state to a highly successful globalized national entity follows Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye's concept of Realism and Complex Interdependence very closely. After Finland attained independence during the interwar period, and during World War II, it displayed many of the characteristics of political realism, such as (…). During the Cold War, Finland's policies began to move away from realism, but it is not until the collapse of the Soviet Union that Finland really embraced complex interdependence.
Finnish Interdependence
The first assumption of the realist view is that the nation-state is the dominant political actor, so if Finland wants to effectively participate in global politics, they must become an independent state. Since the beginning of the Common Era, the vast majority of Finnish existence has been under the rule of a foreign power, first as part of the Kingdom of Sweden, then, for over a century, as a Grand Duchy of Russia. After the Bolshevik Revolution abolished the Russian monarchy, Finland had legal grounds to separate politically from Russia, so on December 6, 1917, the Parliament of Finland adopted Finland's declaration of independence. Bolshevik Russia acknowledged Finland's independence a month later, but it wasn't until after Finland had fought its' bitter Finnish Civil War, and the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between Russia and the Central Powers, that Finland was granted true and legal independence.
Realist Finland
As states are the dominant actors in the realist view, Finland went through a great deal to achieve statehood. The second assumption of realism is that violence is an effective instrument of policy, an instument that Finland was forced to use during WWII. Though Finland was rarely the aggressor in their conflicts with the Soviet Union, it still shows that they were under the influence of a realist system by being on the receiving end of Soviet aggression.
The Finns played both sides (the Nazis and the Soviets) against each other in order to effect their primary goal, as the third assumption predicts, of military security. Their secondary goals of preserving Finnish ideology and maintaining Finnish economy were subordinated to the immediate goal of defending their country. This point was further illustrated when Finland was willing to cede one of their major industrial centers as a part of the Moscow Peace Treaty to end the Winter War. A consequence of association with the Nazis was the labeling of Finland as a "co-belligerent" with the Axis Powers, which put them under the retrictions of the Treaty of Paris.
"Complex Interdependence" Finland
After WWII, Finland found itself in the precarious position of being both East and West. While being more ideologically "Western," the Finnish were forced, due to their geographic reality, to make concessions to the East, "…the entire nation lives within a border zone…and being in the middle requires unity in a struggle against larger forces." During the Cold War, Finland's focus remained on pacifying their mighty neighbor, the Soviet Union. Doing so with force of arms, as in the realist perspective, was impossible, so a new, more complex, strategy was necessary.
Finnish President Juho Kusti "J.K." Paasikivi was the primary architect of Finnish neutrality, but with the specific focus of accommodating Soviet security concerns. In 1948, Finland signed the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (or YYA Treaty) with the Soviet Union. This agreement essentially said that Finland would actively resist Germany or it's allies from attacking Finland, or from attacking the U.S.S.R. through Finland, and would request Soviet assistance to that end, if necessary.
The YYA Treaty created a buffer zone for the Soviets that they were comfortable with. In return, the agreement officially recognized Finnish desire to remain neutral in great-power politics, and increased Finland's political independence from Russia. Since the U.S.S.R. had guaranteed legal access to Finland if a foreign aggressor were attempting to reach Russia though it's territory, they saw no reason to go to the trouble and expense of occupying Finland. This allowed Finland to maintain its capitalist democracy under the shadow of the largest Communist nation in the world.
For the next decade or so, President Paasikivi's successor, Urho Kekkonen, had a difficult balancing act to play. Finland maintained cool relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and also chose not to participate in the Marshall Plan. At the same time Finland was fighting diplomatic Soviet pressure to join the Warsaw Pact. Fortunately for Finland, the language of the YYA Treaty convinced the U.S.S.R. not to employ more aggressive tactics to encourage them to join.
Once Finland's domestic situation had improved, and their relations with Russia had stabilized, Finland began to increase their political latitude by pursuing a policy of "active neutrality." The Finnish government began to take on a bridge-building role in the global community. In 1972, Finland made a proposal to both the West and East to hold a European security conference that would be acceptable to both sides. After much amending, rewording, and readmitting, the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), initially called the Helsinki Process, met in Helsinki, Finland on July 3, 1973. The talks lasted for two years, and the Helsinki Accords were signed in the summer of 1975.
Finland did not make this proposal for entirely selfless reasons; Finland stood a lot to gain from improved East-West relations. This form of active neutrality became known as "Finlandization." Finlandization, more precisely defined, is a small neutral country making deals to secure itself from influence by a much larger country. Finland used it's unique position to help establish multiple channels of communication between East and West. This Finlandization created more trust between the Soviet Union and capitalist Finland, then many Communist countries enjoyed.
The CSCE brought many more issues than just European Security to the forefront. It recognized, as illustrated in the following excerpts from the Final Act of 1975, the equal importance of all issues, and emphasized the necessity to reduce the probability of violence in the region:
The participating States will respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion.
[…]
The participating States will settle disputes among them by peaceful means in such a manner as not to endanger international peace and security, and justice… for this purpose they will use such means as negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, or other peaceful means of their own choice, including any settlement procedure agreed to in advance of disputes to which they are parties.
Participation and mediation of the CSCE was the first major step in Finland's transition from realism to complex interdependence.
Post-Cold War Finland
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990's, Finland took that opportunity to free itself from the restrictions imposed on it by the Treaty of Paris. Free from the fear of Soviet influence, Finland was able to begin pursuing goals that better fit Finnish ideology. The Finnish-Soviet Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance (and the restrictions included therein) was declared null and void, but Finland recognized the Russian Federation as the successor to the U.S.S.R. and was quick to draft bilateral treaties of goodwill between the two nations.
Finland began integrating into Western institutions, while not abandoning neutrality completely. Finland's policy of neutrality was moderated further from "active neutrality" to "military non-alignment," with an emphasis on maintaining a competent independent defense. This policy allowed them to join the European Union in 1995, and any other international organization, provided that Finland would not be forced to contribute militarily in a way that would threaten their neutrality. United Nations Peacekeeping is the only real extranational military responsiblities that Finland participates in.
Finnish Global Policy and International Organizations
Finland is involved with many international organizations, most notably the following: the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the Council of Europe (COE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Nordic Council, and they also participate in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO) Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. The government of Finland takes full advantage of these organizations to advance their policies and ideals.
The Northern Dimension
When Sweden and Finland joined the EU, it brought an entirely new "Northern Dimension" into that organization. The Northern Dimension is essentially how the European Community deals with the Baltic region, specifically Russia, "it addresses the specific challenges of those regions and aims to increase cooperation between the EU member states, the EU applicant countries, and Russia." Now, through Finland, the EU shares a long border with Russia, which necessitates increased cooperation.
The Northern Dimension is another way of describing Finnish policy with Russia, simply from a broader perspective. Finland sees Russian integration into mainstream Western affairs as being just as important to their domestic security as to European security:
From the Finnish perspective, mitigating the security dilemma means promoting closer relations between the West and Russia. One could say that when Finland has been particularly active or resourceful in its foreign policy, most often this resourcefulness has been related to building bridges and thereby indirectly improving Finland's security.
Finland, though now an unmistakably Western-oriented nation, is in the best position, geographically, historically, and politically, to act as a gateway to Russia.
Finland and NATO
The Finns have used their positions in the EU and the OSCE to advance these ideas and have been met with positive responses from Russia. Russia's primary concern in the Northern Dimension is the expansion of NATO into the Baltic States and Finland, "Russia believes that, in addition to economic and environmental issues, the Northern Dimension should contain a political framework aiming to maintain peace and security in the region, on the basis of the CSCE and previous experiences from non-alignment." They see the Finnish Initiative on the Northern Dimension (which was added to EU common policy in 1998) as a possible alternative to NATO for the aforementioned states.
Whether or not Finland should join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is a hotly debated topic. Currently, Finland has a strong, positive relationship with NATO. They joined NATO's Partnership for Peace program to increase interoperability in the event of a crisis, and often serve as a mediator in Russo-NATO interactions. The Russians see Finland's joining NATO as an unnecessarily disruptive act. It would prompt balancing measures from the Russian Federation and destabilize the region. NATO, on the other hand, maintains that Russia is already preparing for Finland to either join NATO, or cooperate closely with NATO in a crisis situation, anyway, so Finland is already "paying for the military-strategic costs of NATO membership, without enjoying its possible benefits."
The Finns, though they have been branching out, are still unwilling to give up their policy of military non-alliance, and NATO membership would remove all claims of neutrality. Proponents see membership as an opportunity to improve NATO-Russian relations, by having a Russia-friendly member, an ally, within NATO to address Russian concerns. They say that Finland's not joining NATO only serves to perpetuate the mistaken idea that NATO is inherently anti-Russia. Opponents suggest that membership would only serve to put Finland in the crossfire of a NATO-Russian conflict, if one ever occurred. Also, if Finland was under threat, by Russia or anyone else, it can be assumed that Finland would receive Western assistance regardless of membership in NATO.
Finland and the United Nations
The United Nations is the first international organization that Finland joined since becoming neutral. Finland was one of the first members to commit troops for UN Peacekeeping and contributes a great deal in proportion to their size. While the Finnish UN agenda is comprehensive, they focus primarily on multilateral cooperation on global issues. In January of 2004, Finland was elected to the Presidency of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and plans to use this position to address multilateral cooperation.
Finnish Political Interpretations of Globalization
Finland's first experiment in globalization came in 1765, when, eleven years before Adam Smith published Wealth of Nations, Finnish politician Anders Chydenius published an article called The National Gain, in which he proposes ideas of free trade and explores the relationship between economy and society. Chydenius actually put his theories into practice by going to the then Swedish-Finnish government and proposed trade liberalization of towns along the Gulf of Bothnia.
Chydenius was also very out spoken about universal rights and the abolition of privilege. "He wanted to promote democracy…he called for oversight of the way state funds were spent; in modern language we would say he advocated openness and good governance." He is remembered in Finland as a man ahead of his time, expressing ideas that were radical in his day, but are now the backbone of Nordic ideology. Beginning with Anders Chydenius, Finland has slowly but surely developed complex and comprehensive global policies.
The contemporary Finnish political views of globalization are extremely varied, but they can be condensed into three basic categories: pro-business, the left, and the political mainstream. The pro-business groups embrace globalization and see it as a wholly positive phenomenon and want very few restrictions. One of the main proponents of this view is the Finnish Business and Policy Forum (EVA). The EVA represents the interests of a variety of business firms and acts as a kind of "United Nations" for the Finnish business community, although it is not only a lobbyist group, "EVA is actually best described as a "think tank" that identifies social phenomena and explores future challenges."
The left, exemplified by people such as Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, are interested in controlling globalization through organizations like the European Union and United Nations (i.e. the WTO, IMF, etc.). In October 1999, Finland's ambassador to the United Nations gave an address to the General Assembly on this very topic:
- "We know that the responsibility for shaping globalization cannot be left to the market forces alone. Therefore now, probably more than ever, there is an increasing need for political measures to accompany and, where possible, to guide globalization in order to spread its benefits more widely… with the words of the Secretary-General we need 'global house-keeping'."
Another think tank that supports and promotes this view is the Network Institute for Global Democratization (NIGD). The NIGD is an organization that promotes global democratic movements, organizations and states. The NIGD's work is based on the belief that globalization is a "coming-together-of-humanity" and must be based on cross-cultural dialogue and joint endeavors through common institutions.
The political mainstream, the Social Democrats, are basically pro-globalization, but want to manage it through tightening the EU and making it a player on par with the United States in influencing how it develops. This stance, particularly promoted by former Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen, supports shaping the European community into a single economic entity to combine resources, through the EU, to compete more effectively. The Social Democratic Party is the most influential party in Finland by a very wide margin, so they often coordinate with the "left" because the political reality is a balance between the two ideologies.
Conclusion
Finland is a country that started out as a relatively poor agrarian state, culturally, economically, and politically dominated by the Swedish on one side and the Russians on the other. If not for Russian influence, globalization and prosperity would have come much more quickly. Even back in the time of Chydenius global ideas had begun to form. In essence, Finland had to put globalization on hold while they fought to protect their sovereignty and identity.
Through acts of political and legal maneuvering, strategic neutrality, ideological concessions, opportunism, and even war, Finland has been able to maintain their political independence and integrity. The paradox is, after expending so much effort establishing and protecting their Finnish political identity, they joined international organizations and began pursuing regional and global integration. Their history is a parallel of the world transition from a domestic dependence view, to a global interdependence view.
Finland defied their geography and survived with a strong economy and a reputation for being resilient and resourceful. Finland is now, by most means of measure, in the top ten most globally successful nations, and is a leader in promoting multilateral cooperation. Finland is an example to the world that a country need not be a superpower to participate globally and influence global development. The resources of the world are available via international organizations and Finland has taken full advantage of them.
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