Finland

OVERVIEW

The Republic of Finland is bordered to the north by Norway, west by Sweden and the Gulf of Bothnia, east by Russia, southwest by the Baltic Sea and south by the Gulf of Finland. Finland's strategic planning is based around the principle of "military non-alliance" and its geographic factors. Lakes form 10 percent of the nation's surface area.

The absence of an active external military threat since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed Finland to pursue a security...