Maantiede ei ole pysyvää

Euroopan unionin jäsenyyden turvallistaminen Suomen kansallisen identiteettiprojektin valossa

Authors

• Sami Moisio

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe the security political struggle which took place in Finland as part of the process of the country joining the European Union. Special attention is paid to the different meanings that were given to the ”geographical factor” – an important element of the struggle. It is argued that ”geography of Finland” is a socially constructed signifier under constant negotiation – even though geographical determinism prevailed during the Cold War era and ”geography” was largely taken for granted as far as security politics was concerned. However, the end of the Cold War opened up new vistas as the political-geographic constellation of Europe was in flux. In the article the geography of Finland is connected to the national identity project and used to analyse the texts of both opponents and proponents of EU membership. It is seen that the historically formed national identity project is very much alive and understood by both competing sides, but the meanings attached to different notions of geography differ fundamentally.