FIIA has launched a project on the political implications of Covid-19. FIIA has established “Finland–China Policy Network.” New book on free movement in the EU by Saila Heinikoski.
Record year of FIIA publications
FIIA’s core operations have been resilient although the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult to organize institute-wide events and distance work has been strongly recommended. This year has been a record year when it comes to the number of publications. Under challenging circumstances, the FIIA staff has been able to publish 63 different studies, as well as high-class external publications ranging from journal articles to books.
Social media channels have been used more than before for the promotion of the published work, and the Institute has found new audiences. At the same time, the quality control mechanisms have been solidified with the addition of peer-review systems where a selected number of researchers experienced in editing have been used to upgrade the argumentative flow of some research deliverables. We wish the FIIA community and networks a very happy holiday season, and a healthy and peaceful New Year.
-Mika Aaltola, Director of FIIA
FIIA has launched a project on the political implications of Covid-19
The project COVID-19 as a political challenge at national and international levels deals with the national and international political implications of the pandemic crisis, especially in Finland and at the level of the European Union (EU). The project analyses the preparedness for pandemics, the responses to the Covid-19 crisis, and the broad political repercussions of the pandemic to date.
The project will produce academic research, briefing papers and seminars, and will continue until May 2021. FIIA research team: Director Mika Aaltola, Research Fellow Johanna Ketola, and Research Assistants Aada Peltonen and Karoliina Vaakanainen.
FIIA has established Finland−China Policy Network
Responding to the increasing need of policy-oriented China know-how and the dispersed research resources, the FIIA has established Finland−China Policy Network under the auspices of the institute’s Asia Research Cluster. The network brings together senior-level China specialists in Finland conducting policy-relevant research in various universities and research institutions and China experts among policy makers and practitioners within the government for in-depth discussions on topical issues. Its purpose is to strengthen the preparedness for Finnish policy discussion related to China in a mutually beneficial manner. The network does not engage in publishing nor give interviews or statements to the media. Research and media activities are carried out by the members of the network in their individual capacity.
The network also organizes seminars and briefings on China’s global role and its repercussions for Finland.
Latest China-related FIIA Publications:
FIIA Briefing Paper: China’s policy towards Belarus and Ukraine: A limited challenge to Sino-Russian relations by Ryhor Nizhnikau and Marcin Kaczmarski
FIIA Briefing Paper: Digital authoritarianism in China and Russia: Common goals and diverging standpoints in the era of great-power rivalry by Elina Sinkkonen and Jussi Lassila
New book by Saila Heinikoski on free movement within the European Union
FIIA’s Senior Research Fellow Saila Heinikoski has published a book entitled “The History and Politics of Free Movement within the European Union” (Bloomsbury Academic). In the book Saila Heinikoski introduces a new conceptual framework for analyzing practical reasoning in political discourses. This concept is applied in the analysis of national free movement debates contextualized in respective migration histories.
According to the abstract, the right to free movement is the one privilege that EU citizens value the most in the Union, but one that has also created much political controversy in recent years, as the debates preceding the 2016 Brexit referendum aptly illustrate. This book examines how European politicians have justified and criticized free movement from the commencement of the first Commission of the EU-25 in November 2004 to the Brexit referendum in June 2016.
The book is published by Bloomsbury Academic and is already available as an e-book. Find more information from the publisher’s website.
Saila Heinikoski has also published a FIIA Briefing Paper: European migration and border management: Future reforms reassert symbolic solidarity
Staff News
FIIA’s Research Fellow Ville Sinkkonen defended his doctoral dissertation in International Law entitled ”Failing Hegemony? Four Essays on the Global Engagement of the United States of America in the 21st Century” at the University of Turku on 16 December 2020.
The President of the Republic of Finland has conferred the decoration of Knight of the Order of the White Rose of Finland to Senior Research Fellow Charly Salonius-Pasternak. The decorations of the Order of the White Rose of Finland are awarded to citizens who have distinguished themselves in the service of Finland. The President of the Republic of Finland confers decorations annually on Finland’s Independence Day (6 December).
Recent publications
All FIIA publications are available on the FIIA website. Here are some of the latest publications.
FIIA Briefing Papers
President Joe Biden and the restoration of US global leadership: Turning the tide? by Ville Sinkkonen, Charly Salonius-Pasternak, Bart Gaens, Niklas Helwig
FIIA Working Papers
How Tunisia’s En-Nahda crafts Islamist politics: From programmatic failure to neo-Islamist framing by Wolfgang Mühlberger
Uzbekistan’s new Central Asia policy: The economic rationale and political implications of good neighbourliness by Kristiina Silvan
EU strategic autonomy: A reality check for Europe’s global agenda by Niklas Helwig
The latest issue of the Finnish Journal of Foreign Affairs (in Finnish)
The latest issue of the journal takes a critical look at the European Union’s influence in its immediate neighbourhood as well as globally. We ask whether the EU has the capacity to become a geopolitical actor and what that could mean in practice. In the profile interview, Professor Anu Bradford from the Columbia Law School explains the Brussels Effect: How the EU, in fact, rules the world with its norms and regulations. In addition, the journal looks at Finland’s place in the world: The journal’s sub editor Matti Koskinen dives deep into what it takes for Finland to catch up on its most important competitors economically. In their essay, Harri Mikkola and Mikael Wigell from FIIA analyse the demands of the age of hybrid operations and geo-economic influence on the Finnish foreign and security policy community. You can access the journal at www.ulkopolitiikka.fi (in Finnish).
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