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The Lawfare Podcast: Finland Joins NATO, with Henri Vanhanen and Minna Ålander

Jen Patja, David Priess, Henri Vanhanen, Minna Ålander
Thursday, April 6, 2023, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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Finland is in NATO. This week, the ratification was made complete, and the country joined the North Atlantic alliance. To talk through how it got there, Lawfare Publisher David Priess sat down with two research fellows at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki: Henri Vanhanen, who has also served as a foreign policy advisor to the National Coalition Party, which recently won the most seats in the Finnish parliament and is in the process of forming a government, and Minna Ålander, a research fellow who, like Henri, has recently written for Lawfare and has been on the podcast previously to talk about Finnish security issues. They talked about the long road to get to NATO membership for Finland, what Finland brings to NATO, and what NATO brings to Finland.


 


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Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
David Priess is Director of Intelligence at Bedrock Learning, Inc. and a Senior Fellow at the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. He served during the Clinton and Bush 43 administrations as a CIA officer and has written two books: “The President’s Book of Secrets,” about the top-secret President’s Daily Brief, and "How To Get Rid of a President," describing the ways American presidents have left office.
Henri Vanhanen is a Research Fellow in the Finnish Institute for International Affairs. He has previously worked as a foreign policy advisor for the National Coalition Party, in the Parliament of Finland, Ministry for Foreign Affairs, European Parliament, and the US Embassy in Helsinki.
Minna Ålander is research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) in Helsinki. Her research topics are German and Finnish foreign and security policy, Northern European security and Nordic defence cooperation. Previously, she worked at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin.