Security, Intelligence and Ideology

The Turku team faces towards the East and focuses on the course of thought and action in a situation where a new future was gradually emerging, but when there was a great deal of uncertainty about possible new directions.

In particular, security and intelligence assessments as well as the role of ideology and historical consciousness in the process of gradually increasing awareness about the changes in East-West relations will be examined. The subproject attempts to draw a comparison between Finnish, Estonian and Swedish levels of information and attitudes to the changes in the East. The disintegration and fall of the Soviet Union and its consequences, in particular the developments in the three Baltic republics, appeared extremely challenging to all actors. The relationship between breaks and continuities will be central here.

Like the other two teams, the Turku team includes also scholars whose themes are closer to the main themes of other teams, e.g. the Western integration.