英文摘要 |
This paper explores the impact of identity on foreign policy, with the idea of “Finlandization” as an empirical case. Foreign policy can be conceptualized as a response to “we” concepts, and a political community’s answers to such questions as “who we are” and “our roles and places in the world” are generally stable. It is thus helpful to grasp the general tendency of a community’s foreign policy if the ways in which it understands and organizes the basic “we” concepts such as how the “nation” and the “state” are identified. The term “Finlandization” originates from the 1948 Finnish-Soviet Treaty, and is used to refer to a small state’s foreign behavior that it takes a great power’s national interests into consideration and avoids actions that hinder the great power, so that its independence and autonomy can be assured. Most literature understands the making of this peculiar policy of neutrality in terms of a small state’s passive but rational action under the constraints of Realpolitik. By analyzing the Finnish discourses of “cultural nation” (Kulturnation) and “state-nation” (Staatsnation), this paper interprets the policy-line of Finlandization as a resort to, as well as a remaking of, the Finnish historical context and tradition. This way of reasoning not only provides the rationalist accounts with more substantial contents, it also helps explain how Finland’s neutrality shifted from a passive stance to a more active one. |