The Lone Cosmopolite
Carl Enckell as Envoy to Paris and Finland’s Foreign Policy Culture 1919–1927
Abstract
This article investigates Carl Enckell’s role as Finland’s envoy to Paris between 1919 and 1927 and the foreign policy culture of the period through the lens of new diplomatic history. By placing Enckell’s activity in its sociocultural and historical context, it showcases how diplomatic representatives were affected in their roles as diplomats by various overlapping interests. Furthermore, it highlights how the diplomatic representatives in the early years of Finland’s foreign service actively pursued their own agenda and utilised networks within and without the foreign service to advance their views on the orientation of the country’s foreign policy.
The article shows that Enckell was sent to Paris due to his contacts within Russian emigree communities to probe for possibilities of a Finnish intervention in the Russian Civil War. As an envoy, Enckell championed a West European integration that would separate the country from other border states and supported the post-war internationalist world order governed through the League of Nations. Enckell tried actively to steer Finnish foreign policy in this direction, which created conflicts within his own legation and with Helsinki.
Keywords: diplomatic history; foreign policy; biography; interwar period
