Over the Finnish line: NATO set to grow
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 28 March 2023
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After ten months of haggling, the military alliance is gaining a new member: Finland. We ask why a historically neutral country has switched tack, and what this means for Russia. How can multinationals navigate an increasingly fragmented world? And how TikTok has spurred a newfound love for romantic novels in Britain.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Intelligence from the Economist. |
| 0:07.0 | In London, I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:08.8 | And I'm Aure Oganby. |
| 0:11.4 | Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world. |
| 0:19.3 | The war in Ukraine has exposed and exacerbated some strains in the way globalization works. |
| 0:26.2 | And raises trouble in questions for corporate giants of the West who got giant by going global. |
| 0:32.3 | Our correspondent lays out a survival guide for them. |
| 0:37.2 | And TikTok has a knack for making niche things popular, from baby-led weaning to DIY carpentry. |
| 0:44.8 | Now, a surge in book reviews on the app is proving good news for one genre in particular. |
| 0:55.8 | First. |
| 1:04.8 | Today Turkey is expected to put an end to ten months of haggling by ratifying Finland's request to join NATO. |
| 1:13.8 | Turkey's vote is the last one needed. |
| 1:16.8 | Hungary approved the measure yesterday. |
| 1:19.8 | And the last one was the last one needed to be released. |
| 1:25.8 | For Finland, it puts an end to a policy of military non-alignment and brings tensions back to more than a thousand kilometres of a border shared with Russia. |
| 1:36.8 | Finland applied to join NATO shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. |
| 1:43.8 | Matt Stanglass is our Europe correspondent. |
| 1:46.8 | That was a big change for Finland. |
| 1:48.8 | It had been a neutral country for practically its entire existence. |
| 1:52.8 | That policy was forced on it during the Cold War by the Soviet Union. |
| 1:56.8 | Its neutral neighbor, Sweden, did the same. |
| 2:00.8 | And both of them expected to join NATO but their applications had been held up by Turkey. |
... |
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