Getting along with Gulliver: A review of Finnish-German relations

Abstract:

This paper investigates the present state of Finnish-German relations. Has Germany become one out of Finland’s many partners in Europe, or does it still play a special role for Finland? Does Finnish foreign policy provide sufficient attention to Germany, or is it in need of reorientation? In order to address these questions, this paper assesses the mutual and conflicting interests of the two countries in different foreign policy fields.

Over time, purely bilateral issues have lost much of their significance. Rather, bilateral relations are now being conducted within the multilateral institutional framework that dominates the foreign policies of both countries. Most of the time, the EU is the major stage on which both countries interact. But when it comes to broader issues of European security, other international institutions, including NATO and the OSCE, also play an important role.

In addition, the paper will revisit the fundamental assumptions on which Finnish-German relations are often based. On first sight, Germany is the biggest EU member, while Finland is – in the words of Foreign Minister Stubb – a 'smallish country […] not exactly in the geographic core of the European Union'. One might assume that Finnish-German relations are strongly affected by this asymmetry. To evaluate this claim, the paper will focus on mutual perceptions in order to go beyond a more traditional approach.