Following the Swedish debate that kicked off earlier this year when key ministers spoke out publicly about the risk of a war involving Sweden, a number of commentators invoked Finland and the Finnish public discussion as arguments in the discourse. I wrote a post as part of my regular slot on the blog of the Swedish Royal Academy of War Sciences outlining how the Finnish view on the risk of war differs from the Swedish one.

I note that the memory of The War – in the definite, describing WWII – is still alive in the collective memory of Finns. This is a very different situation compared to Sweden, and will create a need for a different kind of public discussion.