Cold War and the Environment: The Role of Finland in International Environmental Politics in the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

The Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area signed in 1974 in Helsinki is probably the most important environmental agreement consummated in the Baltic Sea region. This article is the first study that explores the history of this agreement, also known as the Helsinki Convention, by using primary archival sources. The principal sources are the archives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. We examine the role of Finland in the process that led to the signing of the Helsinki Convention from the perspective of international politics. The study focuses primarily on Finnish, Swedish, and Soviet state-level parties from the end of the 1960s to 1974. We show that Cold War politics affected in several ways negotiations and contents of the Helsinki Convention. We also argue that the Soviet Union used the emerging international environmental issues as a new tool of power politics.

The Baltic Sea and global environmental change

“…Environmental issues were considered less politicised than security or human rights issues, thus opening the door for closer cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region (Darst, 2001). Additionally, bilateral discussions between the Soviet Union and the United States paved the way for intergovernmental multilateral solutions in environmental protection (Räsänen and Laakkonen, 2007).…”

10 Negotiating the Maritime Commons: Protecting the Baltic Sea in a European Context

“…The USSR remained adamant in its demand that any multilateral agreement must be signed by every Baltic Sea state, including East Germany. 34 Once again, Cold War politics hindered cooperative policies for saving a deteriorating marine environment.…”

Entangled Environments: Historians and Nature in the Nordic Countries

“…Cold War politics advanced the building of a regional agreement between the littoral states, since both sides of the Iron Curtain wanted to tie the opponents into a network of cooperative activities and thus consolidate peace in Europe between the military blocs. 73 The agreement, however, proved inefficient, in part due to the absence of a shared environmental consciousness, and in part as a result of political motivations carrying more weight than environmental interests. The convergence between environmental issues and other political, social, and cultural processes has since become even more prevalent, with problems such as global climate change and resource scarcity often threatening the poorest and the most vulnerable nations first.…”