ABSTRACT
It has been argued that EU membership has changed Finnish foreign and security policy more than was ever anticipated. Some have even characterized the change as a “complete makeover” (Tiilikainen 2006). In this chapter, we want to evaluate this assessment in two major ways. First, we distinguish between the EU’s impact on Finnish policies and Finland’s impact on the CFSP and on the ESDP. Hypothetically at least, one could say that the two are not totally separate, as it is indeed a CFSP already shaped by Finland – as one of the member states – that subsequently shapes Finnish policies. Second, we embark on assessing the degree to which Finland has had a choice, that is, to what extent Europeanization is a matter of the member state picking and choosing, instead of being made to conform to certain patterns.
