CHACRCRITIQUE AUGUST 2026
#21
A FOCUS ON FINLAND’S SECURITY STANDING
Published by Routledge, Hardback, £116, ISBN: 9781041082606
TITLE Finland in NATO: Perspectives on Strategy EDITORS Tommi Koivula, Matti Puranen and Antti Seppo REVIEWER Professor Andrew Stewart, Head of Conflict Research, CHACR
Finland in NATO: Perspectives on Strategy is an important book which can only enhance awareness and understanding, both of Finnish attitudes towards defence, security and national resilience, but also how NATO managed its most recent expansion and the impact this continues to have on the Alliance as it responds to a still seemingly expansionist Russian Federation. With its 15 chapters, plus an introduction and conclusion, the text falls into three thematic parts: the changing regional strategic context; relations within great power competition; and, the adaptation of the Finnish comprehensive security model. The book’s overarching framework applies the classic ‘ends-ways-means’ model of military strategy providing a framework for the 18 contributors, most of whom are currently involved in some form with the Finnish National Defence University, to assess how a small state recalibrates its grand strategy in the face of an existential external shock, namely Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The editors argue that NATO accession has catalysed a profound evolution in Finnish grand strategy and theorise that the country is currently transitioning from a traditional small state into a “leverage state in the making”. Defined as “a small state that is able to skilfully exploit limited resources to disproportionate effect”, this is a key concept which illustrates the disproportionately significant role Finland has assumed in not just Nordic but also wider European security thinking. By integrating its robust national defence capabilities – such as a wartime strength of 280,000 troops, an 800-gun artillery arsenal and an incoming fleet of F-35 fighters – into NATO’s collective framework, its strategic weight is amplified well beyond its demographic size. Historically, Finland’s grand strategy has been characterised by ‘small-state realism’,
wherein material constraints and geographic proximity to a great power dictated a pragmatic, often cautious, foreign policy. Petteri Jouko’s historical analysis reinforces this continuity, suggesting that NATO membership should be understood not as a sudden ideological rupture, but an adaptive measure, one following on from the country’s previous security and defence policies. Antti Seppo similarly argues that, while Finnish strategic culture is deeply embedded in historical experiences of war and a fundamental ethos of national ‘survival’, it simultaneously possesses a dynamic capacity for rapid adaptation. Jan Hanska’s examination of deterrence is particularly interesting therefore, as it suggests a critical military-strategic shift is taking place: in this argument, Finland is moving from a purely national posture of ‘deterrence-by-denial’ with is active participation in NATO’s collective deterrence frameworks. This marks a revolutionary change in how the nation operationalises its military means. Tommi Koivula and Heljä Ossa explore the strategic debate over whether Finland should primarily be viewed through the lens of Baltic Sea regional security or High North/Arctic geostrategy. As the NATO member with the longest land border with Russia (1,340 kilometres), it effectively provides “strategic depth to the defence of the Norwegian coast”, helps secure the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap and simultaneously possesses the capability – acting in cooperation with Estonia – to close the Gulf of Finland to hostile vessels. The second section of the book broadens the regional focus to the systemic level of global great power competition. Key contributions are made by Sinikukka Saari, who explains the total collapse of the pragmatically managed relationship between Finland and Russia, framing the 2022 rupture as the culmination of an enduring “asymmetry dilemma”. Saari observes that Finland’s previous attempts to manage Russia through dialogue and economic interdependence have been definitively
A FOCUS ON FINLAND // CHACR CRITIQUE