Throughout our conversations on Resilience, there is one country that is regularly touted as being the model for whole-of-society resilience and ‘Total Defence’: Finland. In this episode, we talk to Tom Woolmore, a Research Assistant for the Regional Resilience Project for the Centre for Statecraft and National Security and a Master’s graduate from King’s College London who achieved the Award for Excellence in International Relations and War for his thesis on Finland’s approach to security.
Our conversation starts by exploring Tom’s background in Yorkshire and what first piqued his interest about war studies before diving into his thesis. Here, we looked at the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and why it caused such a radical change in Finnish security policy. Looking to Finland, we explored their approach of ‘deterrence by denial’ and how they have established themselves as being the most resilient country in Europe.
Our conversations then looks at the lessons the UK can learn, from protecting critical infrastructure to improved civilian engagement with resilience to create a ‘cycle of strategic prosperity’. At the end of our conversation, Tom sets out his argument for why Britain’s neoliberal framework for understanding policy is holding is back from engaging society in a ‘whole-of-society’ approach to security.
Listen to the full conversation here and follow Tom’s work here.