Finland's Global Mediator

Scandinavian Review, Spring 2009 by Lavery, Jason

A career devoted to peace and reconciliation earned Finlands former president Martti Ahtisaari the Nobel Peace Pnzefor 2008.

ON THE MORNING OF OCTOBER 10, 2008, THE WORLD awaited for word out of Norway concerning the winner of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize. In neighboring Finland, the pundits already had predicted that former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, mentioned as a candidate for the prize in previous years, would not win. According to the conventional wisdom, his time had passed. But by midday in Finland, Martti Ahtisaari had become the first Finn to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

In its announcement, the Nobel Committee stated that "throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and President or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation. For the past twenty years, he has figured prominendy in endeavors to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts." During the 1970s and 1980s, Martti Ahtisaari contributed to the United Nations' efforts to end South Africa's rule over Namibia. He acted as United Nations' special representative in Namibia during the months before independence in 1990. The U.N. then deputed him to resolve a new hotbed of conflict: the former Yugoslavia. He continued his mediating efforts in the Balkans on behalf of the U.N. and the European Union as President of Finland, 1994-2000. After leaving the presidency, he designed for the international community the plan resulting in the independence of Kosovo in 2007. In recent years, the 71 -year-old Finn has played smaller supporting roles in resolving conflicts in, among other places, Northern Ireland, Iraq and the Horn of Africa.

As a mediator, Ahtisaari has effectively used the influence of the various institutions that he has represented: the United Nations, the European Union, and the Republic of Finland. After leaving Finland's presidency in 2000, he founded his own institute for mediation, the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), in Helsinki. So far, this organization's most visible achievement has been the resolution of the long-running separatist rebellion in the Indonesian province of Aceh. In addition to his ability to use institutional power, Ahtisaari has brought to every mediation effort his personal qualities of patience and approachability, as well as a desire to make the conflicting parties the primary stakeholders in any resolution.

THE NORWEGIAN NOBEL COMMITTEE'S RECOGNITION of Martti Ahtisaari upholds many historical continuities. The award reflects the Nobel Committee's long-standing interest in ending armed conflict. It highlights past and current Finnish efforts for a more peaceful world. Although Ahtisaari is the first Finn to win the prize outright, Finns have contributed to groups that have won the prize, such as the UN peacekeepers (1988) and the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (in 2007 shared with former U.S.Vice President Al Gore). The selection affirms the Scandinavian tradition of international peacemaking. Martti Ahtisaari now joins Alva Myrdal (1982), Dag Hammarskjöld (1961), Karl Hjalmar Branting and Christian Lous Lange (1921), as well as Klas Pon tus Arnoldson and Fredrik Bajer (1908), as Scandinavian Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Martti Ahtisaari's public career parallels that of another recent Nobel Prize winner: former American President Jimmy Carter. Both presidents Carter and Ahtisaari won and later lost their country's highest office in large part because of their image as outsiders. Both became president in a time of domestic economic distress and difficult foreign challenges. They used the presidency as a means of mediating international conflicts. After leaving office, both founded institutions devoted to the cause of world peace. Both men are widely considered in their respective countries as the greatest ex-president ever, that is, they had greater success in public affairs after leaving the presidency than when they held the office.

Although in many respects a nod to tradition, the selection of Mr. Ahtisaari is also timeless. As long as armed force is used as a method for resolving political problems, the world will need mediators like Martti Ahtisaari.

Jason Lavery is an associate professor of history at Oklahoma State University. He has a website dedicated to Finland's past at http://www.history-of-finland.com.