A Nation Can Only Trust in Itself: Finnish Defense Policy in the New Cold War

Abstract

This senior thesis explores the effects of the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea on the contemporary defense policies of the Republic of Finland. Focusing primarily on the state’s defense policy of sotilasliittoon kuulumaton (abstaining from military alliances), it investigates how changing geopolitical realities in the Nordic-Baltic region, as a consequence of increased Russian military activity, have encouraged Helsinki to seek further collaboration with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and protections from Western military powers, in turn affecting Finland’s militarily not-aligned status. To do so, the thesis poses the following questions: How have Finnish defense policies evolved since 2014? What do these evolutions indicate about the reality of Finland’s not-aligned defense policies? How do policymakers around the globe perceive the current state of Finnish defense policy? The thesis uses conceptual, historical, practical and political sources to answer these questions. Ultimately, the presented evidence suggests that Finland’s increased participation in joint military exercises with NATO allies since 2014, adoption of defense coöperation agreements in the past five years, and commitment to defend regional partners to whom it has no treaty obligations, indicate that Finnish “non-alignment” is a misnomer. Instead, the research evinces that sotilasliittoon kuulumaton does not reflect the policies pursued by Helsinki today. The synthesis of existing reports, declassified defense agreements, and interviews conducted with Finnish defense experts and officials in Helsinki suggest that with each year, Helsinki is moving closer to membership in a defense alliance and away from its purported military stance.