"Världsbildens" betydelse för modern finländsk utrikes- och säkerhetspolitik

Authors

• Johanna Fagerström

Abstract

This article offers an explanation to the development of the Finnish foreign policy doctrine after the Cold War. It examines the possibility that different decision makers have different outlooks on the mechanisms of international politics. On the one hand there is the internationalist approach which focuses on international law, institutions and cooperation. On the other hand there is the realist outlook which emphasizes the state as a single actor with its own interests to protect. These diverse “conceptions of the world” constitute the theoretical framework for an analysis where the inertia and the inconsistencies in Finnish foreign and security policy are seen as a result of two antagonist views on Finland’s options regarding an appropriate development in an ever changing world.