Crossing the Finnish Line
A week in Helsinki – A great modern library, the breakdown of an arms control treaty, and the best chocolate.
I’m currently in Helsinki, which means I am spending a lot of time working from Oodi.
Opened in 2018, Oodi is one of the great modern public spaces. As it is not just a library, but an “urban workshop”. Over its three levels, alongside functioning as a library, it also has event spaces and meeting rooms, recording studios, game rooms, print-making facilities, 3D printing machines, art and craft spaces, public kitchens, and even sewing machines so you can make or repair your own clothes (or take customers as below)
Oodi was established to make creative endeavours that are usually quite costly easily accessible to the public regardless of one’s financial situation. So it has both an ethos that I respect and it is a great place to work from.
Mine Statecraft
The reason I am in Helsinki this time is because there are a few things I want to write about Finland.
Yesterday I met with the Arms Control Unit inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to discuss Finland’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (that is, the treaty that banned landmines).
In July, Finland, joined Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in deciding to pull out of the convention. This hasn’t been covered enough in the major foreign affairs publications around the world, so I thought it was my responsibility to do so. So I’m putting together a piece from our discussions.
But the gist is:
The withdrawal of these states from the convention is deeply consequential, given that around 85% of the victims of landmines are civilians (and often children). But their decision is also an understandable response to the deteriorating environment in Europe. Thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its other forms of hybrid warfare.
However, the decision to withdraw from the convention is not solely due to Russian aggression, but it is now also an inability of countries like these to trust the United States. The ability to maintain unfortified borders with Russia – and to not have kids being blown up chasing footballs into fields – has been due to U.S security guarantees.
These guarantees are not an unfair burden on the U.S – as Trump believes – they are the price of being a superpower. Power is the ability to be responsible. And this power also allows you to set the rules. And being a rule-setter is always a bargain.
We have to be clear eyed and recognise that the only thing Russia respects (and understands) is a bigger fist than its own. But if this fist is ambivalent (at best) then the umbrella it provides starts to break down. States like Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have to start thinking of ways to enhance their ability to deter Russia. As unpleasant and potentially dangerous as these enhancements are.
A trustworthy U.S limited the production and placement of destructive weaponry. An untrustworthy U.S will lead to a further erosion of conventions designed to limit the production of weaponry. It will induce the psychology that drives arms races.
Trust is everything in international relations. And Trump is undermining it by the day.
Better Stockpiling
The other – very important – reason for coming to Finland was to stock up on Karl Fazer chocolate. Which, I believe, vies with New Zealand’s Whittaker’s as the world’s best.
However, there’s a caveat.
Karl Fazer is available in Sweden. But it is different. The blocks are different both in dimension and flavour variety, the packaging is different, and most importantly the recipe is different.
The internet refuses to acknowledge the latter point, but I stand by it.
One of the Swedish students who was staying with me in Melbourne earlier in the year (whose mum is Finnish) agrees with me about this. Having discussed the issue at length we are in fierce agreement that the recipe of Karl Fazer chocolate available in Sweden is different (and inferior) to that of the Karl Fazer chocolate available in Finland.
So not only will I be stocking up for myself, but I’ll drop a few blocks in with her family as I pass through Stockholm on the way back down to Skåne. At €5 a block, they’re quite expensive, but the trick is to jump on the ferry back to Sweden and the duty free stores onboard sell them for much cheaper.
On To Åland
Which is exactly what I’ll be doing, however, rather than getting the overnight ferry from Helsinki to Stockholm, I’ve decided to spend a few days in Åland as I want to also write about the islands. So I’ll get the train to Turku and hop on the ferry to Mariehamn.1
Positioned mid-way between Finland and Sweden, Åland is an autonomous, demilitarised and neutral region of Finland. It’s also a unilingual Swedish-speaking region. It has an very interesting history shaped by several international treaties –most notably the Treaty of Paris (1856) which designated its demilitarised status as then-part of the Russian Empire. This is a status Finland inherited in 1917. Yet there are lots of intricate details, caveats and complications about its status that people may not be aware of, and will be fun for me to write about.
I’m meeting with the Åland Peace Institute next week, and keen to learn more about their work and Åland’s unique position.
A little trick for those into such things. If you want to save yourself US $25 you can get from Helsinki to Stockholm in a day without flying. Rather than taking the overnight ferry, you can catch the train to Turku and then ferry to Mariehamn and then another ferry on to Stockholm. Of course, it means getting the 5:30am train from Helsinki to Turku, and then you have an hour to get from the train station to the ferry terminal in Turku, and then only 15 minutes to change ferries when you arrive in Mariehamn. So it’s a tight squeeze and maybe not worth saving US $25. But sounds like it would be a lot fun making the attempt.
There’s this Scottish guy on YouTube who does videos of all the weird and wacky (and cheap) ways to get around Europe. He’s yet to discover this route. So maybe I need to become a travel vlogger and steal his thunder?