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Finland United Nations and Third World
Because Finland had fought with the Axis powers during
World
War II, it was ineligible for charter membership in the UN
in
1945. Finland applied for membership in 1947, but Cold War
disagreements among the great powers on UN admissions
policies
delayed Finland's entry until 1955.
Finland had not been very enthusiastic about membership
in
the UN in the 1945 to 1955 period. The country tried to
pursue
the Paasikivi policy of passive and cautious neutrality
and
feared that joining the UN would be incompatible with its
nonaligned status. A strict interpretation of the UN
charter made
membership in it incompatible with neutrality. According
to
Article 25 of the charter, members of the UN are obliged
to
follow the decision of the Security Council in applying
economic
or military sanctions against other member states.
Since becoming a member, however, Finland has been a
committed and active participant in accordance with its
official
foreign policy of a peaceful and active neutrality. In the
late
1960s, it was a member of the Security Council, and one of
its UN
officials, the diplomat and historian Max Jakobson, was a
strong
contender for the post of secretary general. His candidacy
is
said to have failed because of reservations on the part of
the
Soviet Union. In the fall of 1988, Finland was reelected
to the
Security Council for a two-year term, and it was expected
to
assume the council's chairmanship in 1990.
There have been two main lines of Finnish policy in the
UN.
The first is that Finland avoids any political or economic
confrontation in which the interests of the superpowers
are
directly involved. This policy explains why Finland has
refrained
over the years from condemning Soviet actions, most
recently the
Soviet military presence in Afghanistan. Finnish officials
hold
that their country can be more effective on the
international
level if it has good relations with all countries. (They
commonly
explain that Finland wishes to work as a doctor rather
than as a
judge.) The second current of Finland's UN policy is that
country's role as part of the Nordic bloc within the
organization. Finland consults and collaborates closely
with
other Nordic members, generally voting with them,
participating
with them in aid projects to the Third World through the
United
Nations Development Program (UNDP), or being part of the
UN
forces sent to troubled areas. Finnish forces have taken
part in
every UN peacekeeping mission since the early 1960s. In
addition,
the country maintains a permanent military force available
to the
organization
(see United Nations Peacekeeping Activities
, ch. 5).
Finnish aid to the Third World has not been so extensive
as that
of the other Nordic countries. Finland, for example, has
never
met the goal of contributing 0.7 percent of its gross
national
product
(GNP--see Glossary)
to Third World development,
and
critics have charged that Finland gets a "free ride" from
the
achievements and good reputations of Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark.
Efforts were underway in the 1980s, however, to come
closer to
this figure. The foreign aid programs in which Finland was
involved were not only multilateral, but, with regard to a
few
selected countries, were carried out on a one-to-one
basis.
Finland's record as a provider of asylum for refugees did
not
always match the records of the other Nordic countries. A
quota
system instituted in 1985 provided for the acceptance of
100
refugees a year. Criticism of this figure led to the
quota's
increase to 200 a year in 1987, and in mid-1988 Finnish
officials
decided to admit 300 refugees that year. As of late 1988,
there
were about 1,200 refugees in Finland, nearly all of them
from the
Third World.
* * *
An excellent introduction to Finnish political life is
David
Arter's Politics and Policy-Making in Finland. The
same
author's The Nordic Parliaments presents in great
detail
the workings of the Eduskunta, the Landsting, and the
Nordic
Council. Somewhat dated, but still useful, is Jaakko
Nousiainen's
classic The Finnish Political System. The second
edition
of The Finnish Legal System, edited by Jaakko
Uotila, will
meet the needs of many readers on this subject; in
addition, it
has expert surveys of various Finnish political
institutions.
Small States in Comparative Perspective: Essays for
Erik
Allardt, edited by Risto Alapuro et al, contains a
number of
valuable articles. Klaus Törnudd's Finland and the
International Norms of Human Rights examines Finnish
legal
protections for human rights and provides much information
about
law and the media.
Stimulating brief accounts of Finland's unique
international
position are George Maude's The Finnish Dilemma:
Neutrality in
the Shadow of Power and Max Jakobson's Finnish
Neutrality. Roy Allison's more recent Finland's
Relations
with the Soviet Union, 1944-84 is also very useful.
Foreign Policies of Northern Europe, edited by
Bengt
Sundelius, treats the Nordic region as a whole, yet it
will help
the reader seeking more specific information about many
aspects
of Finnish foreign relations. The Nordic quarterly
Cooperation
and Conflict often contains excellent articles that
deal with
Finnish foreign relations, as does the Yearbook of
Finnish
Foreign Policy, published by the Finnish Institute of
Foreign
Affairs. (For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1988
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