Cold War and the Environment

The Role of Finland in International Environmental Politics in the Baltic Sea Region

Datos Bibliográficos

ID10889367
AutoresTuomas Räsänen (0000-0003-4288-2710, University of Turku), Simo Laakkonen
Año2007
Volumen36
Número2
Páginas229-236
Fecha de publicación2007-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAMBIO (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0044-7447 • E-ISSN: 1654-7209
EditorialRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER • SE)
DOI10.1579/0044-7447(2007)36[229:cwatet]2.0.co;2
PMID17520938
OpenAlexW2174862603
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas9

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.

Baltic sea · Business · Cold war · Convention · Economic history · Economy · Environmental politics · Environmental protection · European union · Geography · International relations · International trade · Ministry of Foreign Affairs · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · European and International Law Studies · History · Law · Oceanography