A major line of contact between Russia and the European Union is the 1, 324 kilometer long border between eastern Finland and Russia. Security for this border, along with the remaining land borders and territorial waters of Finland, together with customs and passport control, all fall within the responsibility of the Finnish Border Guard. Their [...]
Posts under ‘Current Affairs’
Blue Energy
Usually when people think of Paris in April it is because that city is turning green with spring growth. Well, I was just in Paris and it was both about green and growth, but in a completely different way. No, this was an unprecedented gathering hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to France, my friend Charles [...]
Keeping an eye on climate change from Lapland
Several weeks ago I travelled up to Lapland with Petteri Taalas, the Director General of the Finnish Meteorological Institute to learn more about the leadership science that Finland and FMI were doing in monitoring and thinking about climate change. We (Petteri, me, several other Ambassadors and several Finns from the business community) headed up above [...]
70th Anniversary of the End of the Winter War
Today is March 13, 2010 and it is the 70th anniversary of the end of the Winter War. It is no wonder that this event is so embedded in the collective social consciousness of Finland. In the 105 days of its duration 26,662 Finns died defending their country. And although there still remains a great [...]
The Work behind the Vision
We all tend to look to technology to help us address most of the world’s major challenges: sustainability, alternative energy, food security and long term economic growth, to name just a few. Inspiring individuals, businesses and governments to move beyond “what is” to “what is possible” clearly means creating an environment of inspiration, the courage [...]
Leading Edge Power Production
Although it was a bit late arriving this year, it is now definitely winter here in Finland. As I write this, today is beautifully sunny and the outside temperature is -2 degrees Fahrenheit (which is -19 Celsius). Despite the arctic chill, the homes and offices of Helsinki are toasty warm, a reminder of the miracle [...]
Copenhagen
Earlier this week I headed over to Copenhagen to meet with leaders from the United States Department of Energy, business leaders and several of my fellow U.S. Ambassadors. The negotiators where working relentlessly to overcome the many, many challenges that still remained to come to a verifiable agreement that will begin the transformation of our [...]
Climate Change – beyond Copenhagen
News relating to the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP15) continues to be good. Just a few days ago, President Obama announced that he would be moving his participation in COP15 to December 18th – a commitment to working for the most productive possibilities of that meeting. Now anyone who has been in [...]
Meeting with “Generation Y” – Talking About Climate Change with Young Leaders
As has been the case throughout our history, the challenges created by the prior generation must ultimately be addressed by the next. As the world approaches the start of the United Nations Climate Conference at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark (COP15), it seemed only appropriate that I meet with some of the next generation [...]
Manufacturing Electric Cars in Finland
I traveled to Uusikaupunki a few days ago to visit the state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities of Valmet Automotive. Now I love cars and Valmet’s Uusikaupunki plant manufactures the Porsche Boxster and Cayman sports cars and they are beautiful. But that is not why I went to meet with Risto Hukkanen (Executive Vice President) and Hannu Berger [...]
