Finlandization
Noun
Meaning
Finlandization (uncountable)
(politics) The process by which a smaller or less powerful sovereign state comes to abide by a more powerful neighbor's foreign policy rules, while retaining its independence.
Related terms
Examples
Schain, p.132 Finland also declined in order to avoid antagonizing the Soviets (see also Finlandization ).
The Finnish political cartoonist Kari Suomalainen once explained Finlandization as the art of bowing to the East without mooning the West.
On the other hand, the threat of the Soviet Union was used also in Finland's domestic politics in a way that possibly deepened Finlandization (playing the so-called idänkortti, "east card").
This phenomenon was given the name " Finlandization " by the German press.
Finlandization is "the challenge of surviving as a small nation in the shadow of a larger one".