Tightening Finland's Comprehensive Security
Tightening Finland's Comprehensive Security
At the Helsinki Security Forum the Finnish president outlined the country's foreign policy shift in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Being based in Sweden for several months, I had the opportunity this past weekend to pop over to Finland to attend the inaugural Helsinki Security Forum. The forum was created by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The invasion has been a clarifying moment for many states in Europe, and is leading to the revision of many of the previous norms of Nordic, Baltic and Arctic security. The forum sought to address and explain these shifts, as well as discuss the broader implications of Russia’s aggression for Europe as a whole.
The opening keynote address was delivered by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö, a man who speaks in what the Finns call “Räikkönen English” – a low unenthusiastic mumble that seems to consider the act of speaking itself an offensive imposition (named after its most famous proponent, former Formula 1 driver Kimi Räikkönen). Yet what Niinistö lacked in animation, he made up for in a blunt explanation of Finland’s security prerogatives, assessment of the behaviour of Russia, and the reasons why Finland has chosen to pursue NATO membership.
Niinistö illustrated his country’s perspective towards its eastern neighbour by using an old Finnish expression that “the Cossack takes everything that is loose.” Although his use of the term “Cossack” was quite loose itself, the sentiment he was trying to convey was that Finns have a historical awareness about Russia that those who haven’t shared its border may be lacking. Whereas Western European countries may seek accommodations with Moscow, or offer President Vladimir Putin “off ramps” to save face, the Finns know that this is futile. That Russia doesn’t respect gestures of good faith, it only sees weakness that it can exploit.
As a small country of 5.5 million people geographically bound to this much larger, conflict-seeking neighbour – with a border that has shifted several times over past centuries, most recently in 1944 – Finland has developed a doctrine known as “comprehensive security” as the centrepiece of its national defence.
Comprehensive security is a whole-of-society preparedness for times of crisis. It creates an inbuilt resilience to both conventional and hybrid conflicts, and seeks to make the cost of attacking Finland far too great. It includes each business having procedures to quickly orientated themselves to service wartime supply chains, building regulations that make easy conversion of premises into bomb shelters and evacuation centres, and Helsinki having an extensive underground network of tunnels designed to be able to move equipment and supplies undetected.
The doctrine also includes compulsory military training for all men between the ages of 18 and 30, who remain reservists until they are 50. Including female volunteers, close to one third of Finnish society is a reservist. Aware of its neighbour’s fondness for using information as a destabilising tool, comprehensive security also attempts to create a populace who are invulnerable to disinformation, with media literacy being a central feature of Finland’s education system.
Although Finland has a clear common national purpose regarding its own security, the invasion of Ukraine shifted Finnish thinking away from believing that its own security was something distinct from the security of its friends. A week after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Niinistö was in Washington laying the groundwork for Finland’s application for NATO membership. In practice, Finland was already highly interoperable with NATO forces, and the country’s security policy had a well-planned “NATO option” should its security conditions change. Putin pushed this contingency into action.
Yet Niinistö stressed in his speech that NATO membership would not mean that Finland could now neglect its national defence. Finland’s membership will double NATO’s border with Russia, which makes it necessary for Helsinki to be a highly active member of the alliance. The president was clear that Finland’s accession would not be solely about the added protection it offered his country, but about what Finland could offer NATO. Unlike many in the European Union, Finland saw the end of the Cold War as a reason to enhance its defence capabilities.
Finland’s membership of NATO now only requires the ratification of Hungary and Turkey – two countries that are purposefully going slow to create some leverage for themselves. Yet Niinistö stated that in conversations he’s had with officials in Budapest and Ankara he is confident that both will accept Finland’s application.
Given Finland’s geography, the country has tried to maintain a functional relationship with Russia. Land borders especially require considerable bilateral cooperation, and part of Finland’s previously non-aligned status was a pragmatic realisation that Russia was a permanent presence that required daily interaction, and that its prickly disposition needed to be acknowledged and worked with. Yet Niiinistö noted that “At this point in time, any kind of functioning relationship with Russia seems like a very distant prospect.” The morning of his speech Finland banned Russians entering the country on tourist visas.
Although there are very few countries that run a tighter ship than Finland, the invasion of Ukraine led Helsinki to conclude that a lack of NATO membership was a loose thread that the “Cossacks'' could potentially pull on. As Russia is prone to what Niinistö termed “wicked surprises”, the only option for Finland was to embrace NATO’s position of collective strength.