Lessons from Finland: Building Security Through Trust in Institutions
Former Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin is Monday’s keynote speaker at GSX 2024. But what makes Finland an ideal case study in the role of geopolitics in corporate security?
Finland is the happiest country in the world. It’s held that title for seven years in a row now.
The measure of Finland’s happiness comes from the UN’s World Happiness Report and is based on individuals’ assessments of their own lives—specifically their answers to the Cantril Ladder life-evaluation question.
“The Cantril Ladder asks respondents to think of a ladder, with the best possible life for them being a 10 and the worst possible life being a 0,” according to the UN. “They are then asked to rate their own current lives on that 0 to 10 scale. The rankings are from nationally representative samples over three years.”
In the 2024 report, 95 percent of residents of Finland on average said they were on rung 7.741 of that 10-step ladder.
But what gives Finns the confidence to rate their lives so highly? Following the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit in Washington, D.C., in July 2024, the think tank Brookings hosted a discussion with Ambassador of Finland to the United States Mikko Hautala. The organizers asked him directly: What makes Finns so happy?
“I guess the reason is, simply, there’s a very high degree of trust in institutions in our country—maybe in the world,” Hautala explained. “People’s lives are predictable. They have a high degree of security. Society works as they expect it to work. It gives peace of mind.”
For instance, roughly 72 percent of Finns between 15 and 64 are employed, with just 4 percent working “very long hours in paid work,” according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Nearly all adult Finns—91 percent—have completed upper secondary education; have a life expectancy of 82; and 96 percent of people “believe that they know someone they could rely on in time of need,” OECD adds.
Finland fostered this sense of security and trust after the end of World War II. Finland strived to be a neutral country and worked to have a relationship with the Soviet Union and then Russia. This was important because Finland shares a large land border with Russia—stretching 1,340 kilometers.
Prior to 2019, more than 2,000 Finnish firms exported to Russia. Russia, meanwhile, served as an important raw-material supplier for Finland, according to a bulletin from the Bank of Finland.
Although Finland was neutral, the relationship with Russia was not always easy or harmonious. Hautala said Finland had to be ready, alert, and always assessing where the relationship might go. Finland joined the European Union in 1995 following the Cold War and laid the groundwork to potentially become a NATO member.
“We had—30 years ago—the idea that we need to be able to apply and join, to have a credible chance to join if we wished to do so,” Hautala added. “That’s why we made ourselves NATO compatible, took part in NATO peace keeping operations.”
To be eligible to join NATO, Finland had to have a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy, fair treatment of minority populations, commitment to resolve conflicts peacefully, ability and willingness to make military contributions to NATO operations, and commitment to democratic civil-military relations and institutions.
Along with meeting those requirements, Finland became one of NATO’s strongest partners, participating in defense exercises with other Nordic countries, creating security training centers supported by NATO, and even signing a memorandum of understanding on Host Nation Support. This meant that NATO would be allowed to provide logistical support to allied forces located on, or in transit through, Finland’s territory during exercises or in a crisis, according to NATO fact sheet on relations with Finland.
Public sentiment, however, kept Finland from formally joining NATO. Hautala said that, during the Cold War era, just 20 to 30 percent of Finns supported the idea of joining the alliance, and since then there was not much enthusiasm for the effort.
He also said that should Finland decide to apply for NATO membership “out of the blue,” there might be a violent reaction from Russia. “Most people concluded that the risk was fairly low, but you were not able to completely exclude that,” Hautala said.
Instead, the perception was that it would be better to apply for membership when Russia was busy with a domestic issue or busy militarily elsewhere in the world.
Russian President Vladimir Putin removed those obstacles for Finland to join NATO when he launched a military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Hautala said. This move drastically shifted public opinion in favor of membership, and Finland formally submitted its letter of application to NATO on 4 July 2022—becoming a member on 4 April 2023.
“Joining NATO is good for Finland. It is good for Nordic security. And it is good for NATO as a whole,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in a press statement about Finland’s ascension. “Finland brings substantial and highly capable forces. Expertise in national resilience. And years of experience working side-by-side with NATO allies.”
More than a year later, Hautala said that Finland is more secure as a NATO member than it would be without the alliance. Support for membership remains high—he estimated approximately 80 to 90 percent of Finns approve.
Finland is also taking measures to improve its own defenses. It invests 2.4 percent of its GDP into its defense, and it also has conscription for the military—unlike many European countries. That “gives us the highest willingness to defend one’s country in Europe,” Hautala said.
Finland has 280,000 troops and around 900,000 people out of its 5 million population with military training, according to a Wilson Center analysis. “In historical terms, Finland has a fighter per capita ratio equivalent to ancient Sparta.”
But Hautala added that they need to keep up the work to make sure that there is “absolutely no appetite to test Article 5.” Also known as the Washington Treaty, Article 5 is a defense principle that says if an armed attack is made against one—or more—NATO members, it is considered an attack on all NATO members, and they must act to assist the targeted member. This action can include the use of military force.
Maintaining this prepared posture is important because Russia will continue to be a problem for the next several years, if not next several decades, explained Hautala, who served as deputy head of mission to the Embassy of Finland to Russia in Moscow prior to his current role.
Hautala said it’s hard to see how Russia will walk out of its current situation and develop elements of democracy that would prohibit one person, such as Putin or his successor, from driving the nation into descent.
To change this, Russian citizens would have to ask: “Do we want to go on waging these wars, playing this empire? Is this really something we want to do? Is this in our best interest?” Hautala said. “Currently, they don’t have that discussion at all. And I’m skeptical that they are ripe for that domestic debate anytime soon.”
The decision to join NATO and gain the security that comes with Article 5 does not change Finland’s focus on being self-sufficient, resilient, and ready to mobilize to protect society in times of a crisis, according to analysis from RAND.
“To ensure national preparedness and resilience, Finland depends on extensive cross-sectoral cooperation, where private companies and organizations engage with the public sector in various frameworks during the planning process to ensure critical supply and the functioning of society during crises,” the research organization explained. “Drawing on all of society’s resources, conscription, a well-trained reserve, and a high will to defend the country remain the foundation of Finland’s national defense.”
Learn More at GSX 2024
Sanna Marin was the prime minister of Finland during this historic transition to NATO membership, leading the nation from 2019 to 2023. In keynote remarks on 23 September at GSX 2024 in Orlando, Florida, Marin will share key geopolitical challenges that led to Finland’s decision to join NATO.
She will also share the role democratic alliances have in facing significant threats, and strategies for mitigating authoritarian regimes while advocating for the reinforcement of partnerships, resilience, and trust.
The keynote will be open to GSX attendees with All-Access passes. For more information on the keynotes at GSX, visit the conference website.
Megan Gates is the editor-in-chief of the GSX Daily, which is published by Security Management. Connect with her at [email protected] or on LinkedIn.
