tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893847182564659255.post6776437962694185209..comments2023-11-02T13:57:16.422+02:00Comments on a lamb with no guiding light: Foreign Ministry's NATO reportArihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17741128283037566675noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893847182564659255.post-23424944754056099892007-12-23T18:51:00.000+02:002007-12-23T18:51:00.000+02:00Is the big factor influencing Finland's domestic o...<I>Is the big factor influencing Finland's domestic opinion Russia or the United States or both?</I><BR/><BR/>I think I'll post some numbers on this later, but the short answer is both. I mean, NATO is what it is because of US involvement, and Russia is always central to Finnish foreign policy.<BR/><BR/><I>And if, say, Hillary Clinton became president, would that make Finland any more likely to join?</I><BR/><BR/>Yes, a little. Many Finns oppose membership because they don't want to get dragged into other people's wars. To the extent that the next US President seems less of a war-monger than the current one, that'd help to alleviate some of the NATO opponents' fears. I previously wrote about this <A HREF="http://noguidinglight.blogspot.com/2007/11/next-us-president-and-nato.html" REL="nofollow">here</A>.Arihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17741128283037566675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3893847182564659255.post-51440829481698806852007-12-23T15:30:00.000+02:002007-12-23T15:30:00.000+02:00Is the big factor influencing Finland's domestic o...Is the big factor influencing Finland's domestic opinion Russia or the United States or both?<BR/><BR/>And if, say, Hillary Clinton became president, would that make Finland any more likely to join?<BR/><BR/>I know in Estonia, they basically decided that they couldn't adopt the Finnish "total defense" strategy because it's hard to defend Estonia. <BR/><BR/>So they opted for "collective defense" which in Europe means NATO. Relations with Russia wer ebad already, so why worry about annoying them again, when you've annoyed them so many other times ...Giustinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04756707910693785516noreply@blogger.com