Suomen mahdollisen Nato-jäsenyyden vaikutukset maamme kriisinsieto- ja puolustuskykyyn

Kirjoittajat

• Rainer Peltoniemi

Avainsanat:

strategia, NATO-jäsenyys, vaikutukset, ydinosaamisalueet, strategiset ydinosaamisalueet, Suomen puolustusjärjestelmä, Suomen puolustusvoimat

Abstrakti

The EFFECT OF FINLAND’S POSSIBLE NATO MEMBERSHIP ON OUR COUNTRY’S CRISIS TOLERANCE AND DEFENCE CAPACITY One of Finland’s security policy alternatives is NATO membership. The decision to become a member rests solely on the country’s political leadership, the President, the Government and the Parliament. The decision may also be made by the Finnish people if there is a referendum. Because of this the impact of possible NATO membership must be thoroughly researched and brought to public knowledge. This way the people have a possibility to estimate what NATO membership contains. Territorial defence has been the Finnish Defence System since the 1960’s. The objectiveof Finnish defence is in all situations to secure the country’s independence, to safeguard the livelihood of the people, to prevent the exploitation of Finnish territory and to secure the operation and freedom of the country’s leadership. The mission, existence and tasks of the Finnish Defence Forces are based on the law. Our defence capacity is developed according to the parliamentary report as a militarily non-allied country by taking into consideration the changes in security environment and in the nature of crises and threats as well as the defence capacity based on them and the development and resources of Finnish society. In information society the capacity of the defence system is based on economical, physical and intangible factors such as core competence areas. The core competence areas of the Finnish Defence System are divided into strategic and other areas. The strategic core competence areas are those whose control and development is essential in all situations. Strategic core competence areas constitute forming and maintaining a strategic situation picture, surveillance and securing of territorial integrity, protecting the vital functions and installations of society, deterring military threats and participating in international crisis management. Other core competence areas include advance warning, territorial surveillance, command capacity, international crisis management, capacity to protect society’s functional prerequisites, capacity to receive resources, capacity for preventing, air defence, maritime defence, capacity to deter attacks on land, force production capacity and capacity to maintain activities. The list of the core competence areas of the Finnish Defence System forms a comprehensive picture of all the know-how that the end state, mission, tasks and future performance capacity placed on the Finnish Defence System in parliamentary guidance require. The military impact of Finland’s possible NATO membership becomes apparent on three levels. The most important factor from the point of view of national defence is that NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s crisis tolerance and defence capacity. Secondly, as a result of the membership, new core competence areas should be developed for the Finnish Defence System. These new core competence areas would be the capacity for joint operations, capacity for interoperability among services, capacity for rapid and immediate action and capacity to release resources. Thirdly, the importance of international crisis management would increase, and correspondingly, the importance of deterring military threats and preventing attacks on the ground would decrease. The above gives an indicative picture of how the core competence areas of the Finnish Defence System would change if Finland were to become a member of NATO. In addition, the impact of political, economical and geostrategic factors should be taken into consideration. Also any other military impact should be evaluated. After the evaluation of overall impact general conclusions can be drawn. Whether Finland joins NATO or not internationality and co-operation will be emphasized in the Finnish Defence Forces. This is already apparent in the new law on the Defence Forces in which supporting other authorities and participating in international crisis management operations are key tasks of the Finnish Defence Forces in addition to the traditional military defence of the country. Artikkeli on suomen kielellä ja luettavissa painetussa julkaisussa Tiede ja ase 65 (hinta 20 €). Julkaisun voi tilata Tiedekirjasta sähköpostitse [e-mail] tai verkkokaupasta www.tiedekirja.fi