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Finland lives A paradox. The nation became for the eighth consecutive year in the happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report 2025 of the University of Oxford and the United Nations. However, and no matter how happy the lives of its citizens are, its geography has changed the geopolitical situation. While the country was crowned with such virtue, an United States army had come to prepare for “the worst.”
Happiness. With an average score 7,736 out of 10the Nordic country maintained its leadership in a ranking based on the evaluation that people make of their own lives, through surveys that cover three years and measure subjective perception, social ties and trust. They accompany him in the top positions other nations of the North European Like Denmark, Iceland and Sweden, consolidating a pattern that highlights the virtues of strong social systems, access to nature, community cohesion and collective well -being as pillars of a satisfactory life.
Harvard said that Finland’s persistent success was not noisy, nor depended on advertising campaigns, nor a national identity built on exceptionality. Rather, rather, on a Silent and robust balance between nature, social protection, free time, daily civism and an extended perception of security and mutual trust. Almost the same could be said of the rest of the “north” nations, the same whose geography could change the status quo.
A new front. Almost along with New York Times counted A scene that had occurred in another area of the nation. In mid -February, an emergency fictional message sent by Finland’s defense forces activated a large -scale military exercise: an enemy invasion required immediate assistance. Dozens of American soldiers, members of the newly created Arctic Division of the American Armythey left from Fairbanks, Alaska, and crossed the northern pole to land in Rovaniemi, north of Finland.
Equipped with M-4 rifles, machine guns and rocket launchers, they were deployed in snowy forests, dresses with special white uniforms and steam waterproof boots. Although It was a drillthe geopolitical and climatic background endowed it with the most disturbing gravity: with the melting of the Arctic ice, this inaccessible region is inaccessible has now returned strategiccausing powers such as Russia, China, the United States and various European nations They actively train for a possible conflict in extreme conditions.
The new Arctic centrality. According to Canadian General Robert McBridethe world’s armies have left behind the era of the “war on terror” to focus Your attention in the Arctica territory that, like We have been countinghas acquired prominence for its strategic value, natural resources and emerging transport routes.
In that context, cooperation between Finland and the United States It has intensifiedespecially since Finland joined NATObecoming the country of the alliance with the most extensive border with Russia: 1,340 kilometers. The historical past (Finland He fought against The Soviet Union in World War II) reinforces the defensive nature of this relationship. “Russia will take everything that is not nailed to the wall,” recalled a said Finn -cited by Janne Kuusela, defense official, to the Times. Despite recent political changes and Trump’s verbal approach to Moscowin the icy field, cooperation between the two countries seems solid and determined.
The United States Army displaced to the area
Ice war. What’s doubt, put on the worst stage, the Arctic War It presents unique challenges. “It’s like operating in space. No one will come to help you. And the environment can kill you,” summarized the American colonel Christopher Brawley. The cardinal rule: stay dry. Finnish soldiers must pass An extreme test It consists of throwing themselves, with all the equipment on, in an open hole on an icy river, going quickly and changing clothes before suffering freezing, what they should do with the help of their classmates, since their hands stop responding in seconds.
Jackson Crites Videman, a conscript of dual Finnish and American nationality, lived at 36 degrees below zero. We remember that Finland is one of the few democratic countries with conscriptionand before the latent threat of the east, ha Increased your budget In defense. Although the war in Ukraine has significantly reduced the Russian presence in the border region, the Finns calculate that it will only take between five and ten years to establish a tangible danger again.
Preparations: Winter war. The designation in 2022 of the 11th Airborne Division of Alaska as the first and unique Arctic Division of the United States marked A doctrinal change. The US army tested new uniforms, combat skis and vehicles with caterpillars capable of climbing frost pending. During the drill in Finland, they showed a New transport model that climbs on the snow efficiently.
Plus: Special rations For cold weather, with high caloric content, they reflected in the tests the amount of energy that simply demands to stay hot in that environment. And if winter imposes its rules, summer also does not offer relief in the enclave: with perpetual sun and without night, disappears The advantage of glasses Night vision, and when ice melts, the earth becomes an impassable lodazal of dense forests, rivers, lakes and marshes.
No name, but with coordinates. Had the New York Times That, during the maneuvers, the troops took advantage of frozen rivers as improvised highways. With their rifles behind the back, they slipped quickly on the ice, in an environment that demands physical resistance and strategic clarity. Result? The exercise was finally considered a success For the commanders.
Before the question of whether the proximity in recent times between Trump and Russia was a reason for concern, Finnish General Sami-Antti Takamaa was blunt to the middle: “It doesn’t worry me at all. The American airborne division has just arrived from Alaska. That is what matters to me.”
Finland and NATO. Thus, and while the global geopolitical balance seems to stagger between tense alliances and resurgent threats, Finland, the happiest country in the world For eighth time With its 5.6 million inhabitants and an extreme geography, it emerges as one of the Defensive bastions more strategic in Europe.
In addition, his commitment to NATO is neither symbolic nor recent: it is a pragmatic response to a story shared with An unpredictable neighbor. As we see, in its forests and skies without night, not only a form of combat is being rehearsed, but a new dissuasion phase. In the icy land of the north, where the weather imposes its own rules and survival depends on both the coat and training, the coordinates of the next military border of the 21st century are already drawn.
And on that map, Finland is no longer a remote land (not just “happy”): it points to being the front.
Image | NATO North, Virginia Guard
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