Episode 33 · 2020-08-24 · 37:56 · Original in Finnish
Security policy, the euro and NATO | Vesa Kanniainen | Negotiator 33
Originally published as “#neuvottelija 33 - Turvallisuuspolitiikka EU:ssa, euro ja NATO (Vesa Kanniainen)”
Vesa Kanniainen, emeritus professor of economics, examines Finland's permanent security deficit and why he considers EU membership one of the most significant post-war security decisions the country has made — even though he is best known as a euro critic. The episode covers a game-theoretic reading of the YYA treaty, the NATO option and the price of exercising it as shared responsibility for the Baltics, the costs of the common currency and the parallel-currency idea, and Kanniainen's work at the boundary of morality and economics from Adam Smith to Vernon Smith.
Watch and listen
Key moments
- 00:00 — NATO needs Finland more than Finland needs NATO
- 02:00 — The security review and a game-theoretic reading of the YYA treaty
- 04:00 — Federation theory and fiscal federalism
- 06:00 — Good institutions as a precondition for federation
- 08:00 — Euro-scepticism and EU support are two different things
- 10:00 — Finland's security deficit and the scale of the EU
- 12:00 — Conscription and defence spending as a share of GDP
- 14:00 — Is NATO membership still a big step
- 16:00 — Shared responsibility for the Baltics as the price of membership
- 18:00 — The NATO option and the case for not exercising it
- 20:00 — The costs of the common currency and floating rates
- 22:00 — Returning to national currencies is not easy
- 24:00 — Poland and Sweden manage with their own currencies
- 26:00 — A constitution, institutions and defining power in the EU
- 28:00 — Poland and Hungary as recipients of the recovery package
- 30:00 — Where the work on morality started: the ethics of layoffs
- 32:00 — Evolutionary background, altruism and cooperation
- 34:00 — Adam Smith and Vernon Smith — two Smiths
- 36:00 — The institutional layer and a deepening model of the human being
Summary
Vesa Kanniainen, emeritus professor of economics, examines Finland’s permanent security deficit and why he considers EU membership one of the most significant post-war security decisions the country has made — even though he is best known as a euro critic. The episode covers a game-theoretic reading of the YYA treaty, the NATO option and the price of exercising it as shared responsibility for the Baltics, the costs of the common currency and the parallel-currency idea, and Kanniainen’s work at the boundary of morality and economics from Adam Smith to Vernon Smith.
Chapters
- 00:00 — NATO needs Finland more than Finland needs NATO
- 02:00 — The security review and a game-theoretic reading of the YYA treaty
- 04:00 — Federation theory and fiscal federalism
- 06:00 — Good institutions as a precondition for federation
- 08:00 — Euro-scepticism and EU support are two different things
- 10:00 — Finland’s security deficit and the scale of the EU
- 12:00 — Conscription and defence spending as a share of GDP
- 14:00 — Is NATO membership still a big step
- 16:00 — Shared responsibility for the Baltics as the price of membership
- 18:00 — The NATO option and the case for not exercising it
- 20:00 — The costs of the common currency and floating rates
- 22:00 — Returning to national currencies is not easy
- 24:00 — Poland and Sweden manage with their own currencies
- 26:00 — A constitution, institutions and defining power in the EU
- 28:00 — Poland and Hungary as recipients of the recovery package
- 30:00 — Where the work on morality started: the ethics of layoffs
- 32:00 — Evolutionary background, altruism and cooperation
- 34:00 — Adam Smith and Vernon Smith — two Smiths
- 36:00 — The institutional layer and a deepening model of the human being
Watch
The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: #neuvottelija 33 - Turvallisuuspolitiikka EU:ssa, euro ja NATO (Vesa Kanniainen). A Finnish edition of this episode is published at www.neuvottelija.fi.
Go deeper
Explore the ideas in depth
Guides connected to this conversation, with frameworks and further reading.
Negotiation Strategy, Leverage and Power: Reading the Counterparty You Actually Have
A negotiation guide from the co-author of Neuvotteluvalta — the sources of leverage, BATNA and anchoring in practice, using information asymmetry, breaking deadlocks, and what to do when the counterparty negotiates on power rather than consensus. Grounded in Neuvottelija conversations and two decades of negotiation writing.
People and topics
Guests: Vesa Kanniainen
Topics: Geopolitics