But it’s hard to argue with what works, especially if it works under the most dire circumstances. They got to stay independent, out of a Soviet military or [formal] economic bloc, and more or less govern themselves. Few nations manage a situation like they had half as well.

I have earlier mentioned that Canadian wild card political commentator Gwynne Dyer once advocated Finlandization for Canada. Toward the United States, mind you, but still.

It’s hard to remember now but the term had surprisingly wide currency in the early to mid 80s and was being thrown about as an option for a lot of countries that were emphatically not in comparable situations to Finland.