Finlandization
Finlandization noun: 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.
Noun
Finlandization (uncountable)
- 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.
- Yet the model surfaced again this week, when President Emmanuel Macron of France was asked by a reporter during his shuttle diplomacy in Moscow whether Finlandization was a possibility for Ukraine. He replied, “Yes, it is one of the options on the table.”2022 February 9, Jason Horowitz, “Finns Don’t Wish ‘Finlandization’ on Ukraine (or Anyone)”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Origin of Finlandization
From Finland + -ization, translating German Finnlandisierung, referring to the political climate in Finland during the cold war in the view of a 1960s and 1970s West-German debate.
Questions about Finlandization
- What does Finlandization mean?
- Finlandization means 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.
- What part of speech is Finlandization?
- Finlandization is a noun.
Words near Finlandization in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: Finlandization (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Finlandization.wav.
Cite this entry: “Finlandization.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/finlandization. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.