ABSTRACT
Friends who know that our father was a political scientist and Finnish diplomat sometimes say that my brother Kal and I must have been predestined to become political scientists. My earliest recollection of political activity was standing in front of the German Legation in Geneva, next door to our residence in the Finnish Legation, singing a popular song of the time: “We'll hang our washing on the Siegfried Line” (the German fortifications on the Western front). However, this was hardly the kind of undiplomatic behavior that received parental approval, even though father despised the Nazis. Moreover, we were only ten and eleven years old when father died and, at least in my own case, the path leading to an academic career in political science was highly circuitous.
