Finnish sauna diplomacy as an example of the material culture of diplomacy

Abstract

Finnish sauna diplomacy is a well-known phenomenon in Finland and abroad. Nonetheless, the topic has garnered almost no academic attention – until now. This study takes as its point of departure the notion that material aspects have an effect on how a diplomatic meeting succeeds in its objectives and studies the Finnish sauna as a diplomatic venue in this context.

As such, the study can be situated within the emerging field of the material culture of diplomacy, in which diplomatic practices are examined through the perspective of the material culture studies. Points of interest can, for example, be the materiality of diplomatic documents, diplomatic gifts, the material equipment of diplomatic actors, and the materiality of the locations of the diplomatic encounters, as is the case in this thesis.

The main question the research aims to answer is, how can the Finnish sauna diplomacy be situated within the material culture of diplomacy? The main question is approached by first finding the answers to the questions of why Finnish diplomats have chosen the sauna as a place for a diplomatic meeting and what kind of impact has this choice of venue had on the objectives they have set for the encounter?

In order to do this, 10 Finnish diplomats were interviewed for their insights about the practice. The interviews were in-depth, semi-structured, and conversational in nature and their length varied from 30 minutes to over an hour. The data collected with this method was complemented by miscellaneous written sources such as speeches, biographies, and newspaper articles to draw out a more comprehensive image of the phenomenon. The data was then analyzed hermeneutically reading between the textual material and its context – the Finnish sauna culture, which is introduced before the analyzes section of the thesis.

The main findings of the thesis were that the Finnish diplomats had chosen the sauna as a meeting venue consciously and with specials objectives in mind, which they assumed the sauna would help fulfill. As such, it was recognized that the Finnish sauna diplomacy indeed meets the main precondition of the material culture of diplomacy, which is that some material aspects or even the whole material setting of a diplomatic encounter are assumed to have an impact in terms of diplomatic objectives and chosen to be used for this reason.

However, a more surprising finding uncovered in the study was that the reputation the Finnish sauna enjoys as a venue of hard-line political negotiating and peace brokering is greatly exaggerated as none of the interviewees had used the sauna in this manner. Instead, the sauna bathing was most often mentioned as a tool for deepening bilateral relationships with work colleagues in order to advance future diplomatic goals or for networking with larger groups of people for whom the sauna space presented itself as a special attraction. Other notable reasons for arranging a diplomatic meeting in a sauna were showcasing Finnish culture and showing hospitality, which can be considered as intrinsically linked to one another in the Finnish context.

The study reveals the special impact the sauna space was both assumed to have and, also, in most cases, had in terms of diplomatic objectives. Accordingly, as the first rigorously conducted academic study concentrating on the Finnish sauna diplomacy, the thesis at hand is an original contribution of knowledge on a topic, which, until now, had been shrouded in mystery.