Finland, geopolitical image of threat and the post‐cold war confusion

Abstract

This paper describes the ability of the modern state to reproduce the state idea in the post‐Cold War Europe. The concept of the geopolitical image of threat is presented as a discursive tool used in mastering the internal space of a state. A state idea based on a geopolitical image of threat is suggested to have been a medium with which the alliance between the Finnish state and nation was historically constructed. By excluding threats linked to the public enemy ‐ the existence of which is crucial for the very existence of the state ‐ the state prevents the breakdown of societal order and strengthens its own idea. In the 1990s the represented geopolitical image of threat possessing the potential of breaking the Finnish societal order includes several factors, all linked to the excludable other, Russia. The represented threat is composed of refugee flows, Russian crime, environmental pollution, the possible return of Communism, a strong Russia, a weak Russia, military attack and many other features linked to Russia and posing a negative challenge to Finnish society. As a security‐political discourse the geopolitical image of threat is thus remarkably fine‐textured and dispersed, but this is exactly why it is so descriptive of the identity project and the confusion characteristic of the post‐Cold War era.