Kun pienvaltiorealismin hegemonia murtui : suomalaiset ulkopoliittiset koulukunnat kylmän sodan jälkeisen ajan alussa

Authors

• Matti Pesu

Abstract

The study examines Finnish foreign policy at the beginning of the post-Cold War era – more spe­cifically in 1989–1997. It concentrates on the evolution of Finnish foreign policy thinking, and the work’s objective is to outline the Finnish foreign policy schools of thought of the period. In the article, schools of thought are understood as competing national identities, or more precisely, as alternative self-images, comprising of social purpose, status and worldviews. Throughout the Cold War, “small state realism” had been the dominant tradition in Finnish foreign policy, and Finland’s Cold War foreign affairs were built on the hegemony of the realistic school stressing the importance of history and geography as the fundamental conditions for Finnish national security. The end of the Cold War – with the collapse of Soviet Union – implied a transformation as regards to the conduct of Finnish foreign policy. The structural change meant more leeway for Finland in its foreign affairs. This resulted in the emergence of competing schools of thought. The study identifies alto­gether four different strands of thinking: small state realism, integrationism, Euro-Atlanticism, and globalism – which all left their mark on Finnish foreign policy at the immediate post-Cold War years, integrationism having been the strongest school.