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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   1749 thread views

Transnational Thursday for January 25, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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In the recent times, the importance of the President is, if anything, heightened, as there’s a possibility the country might be at war within the next presidential term

Is this actually a considered a significant possibility in the zeitgeist? I'm aware that Putin has made bad-ish decisions in the recent past, but 'pick a fight with NATO over some not-particularly-attractive* real estate' seems a bit OTT?

*no offense, I love Finland -- but frankly I'm not sure Putin is enough of a fjord lover to be interested in the Nordics per-se

Finland doesn't have fjords. That's Norway.

The most likely scenario at this point would be a general NATO-Russia war, of course. in that case there would probably be some fighting in Finland, but it's very possible the biggest Finnish casualties would be among the troops sent to defend the Baltic states.

Finland doesn't have fjords

I blame the Russians!

One could also blame the Swedes, if the Swedes had been a bit more proactive in settling northern areas then the current Norwegian county of Finnmark, which has plenty of fjords, could now be a part of Finland.

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