🇺🇦 Does Finland Need NATO?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has Finland questioning its tradition of military non-alignment. Janne Korhonen, university professor and political activist, dials in to tell Arthur how the debate on NATO membership has shifted following Putin’s war. We're putting out irregular war bulletins covering different aspects of the Ukraine crisis. Help our work, and shape the next full series of Doomsday Watch, by supporting us on Patreon. Resources to help the Ukrainian people can be found here: https://ukrainewar.carrd.co/ “When Russia invaded in 1939, Finland was in quite a similar position to Ukraine today.” “We joined the EU because we were afraid of Russia, but going to NATO at that time would’ve been too much.” “The defence of Finland is not just a question for the military, but for the whole of society.” “The last poll showed 62% of Finns are in favour in joining NATO, a complete reversal from six months ago.” “My guess is that Finland will be NATO members before the end of this year. It’s now or never.” “These threats Russia is making about Sweden and Finland joining NATO are nothing new. They’ve been making them for over 20 years.” DOOMSDAY WATCH was written and presented by Arthur Snell, and produced by Robin Leeburn with Jacob Archbold. Theme tune and original music by Paul Hartnoll. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. DOOMSDAY WATCH is a Podmasters production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome aboard this Air France podcast message. Air France and its crew invite you to discover
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0:16.0	ultra soft duvet and pillow are at your disposal. Air France wishes you a pleasant podcast.
0:23.4	Air France book your business class tickets now at france.co.uk
0:30.4	I'm Arthur Stell. A major war is taking place on the European continent with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
0:38.4	We'll be releasing a series of special episodes to help you understand the background to this historic
0:44.4	crisis and track it as it unfolds. This is Doomsday Watch.
0:56.4	Welcome back to Doomsday Watch. We hope you're finding these war bulletins valuable. A quick reminder that you can
1:03.4	support our work on the crowdfunding app Patreon from as little as £3 per month. Just search Patreon Doomsday Watch
1:10.4	or follow the link in the show notes.
1:17.4	Among the many geopolitical impacts from Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a question of NATO
1:25.4	membership for those European countries that have hitherto not joined, notably Finland and Sweden.
1:33.4	And of these two, perhaps the most important strategically is Finland, with its 1,300 km border with Russia.
1:42.4	Yana Kohonen is a Finnish academic who has looked at the questions of political and security policy in Finland and joins us today from Helsinki to discuss this.
1:53.4	Yana, welcome.
1:55.4	We're speaking today. It's the middle of March. About 20 days ago, Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
2:04.4	And that has changed European perspectives on politics and security in a fundamental way.
2:12.4	One of the countries, perhaps most affected, is your country, Finland. Of course, Finland has a huge long border with Russia.
2:21.4	It has historically a complicated relationship with that country. And it has historically pursued a path of neutrality with a western leaning.
2:32.4	But now a lot of people in Finland are looking to change that pathway. There's a lot of discussion about the possibility of Finland joining NATO.
2:42.4	And it's a perfect time to be discussing these issues with you, Yana.
2:48.4	So if I may, I'd like to start for those listeners of ours who are less familiar with Finland and its post-war history.
	...

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