Dr. Iro Särkkä is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the research programme for Finnish Foreign Policy, Northern European Security and NATO. Her areas of expertise include Finnish, Nordic, French and European foreign policy, multilateral security frameworks, NATO and the EU, as well as questions of political behaviour. Recently, her research interests have included studying and conceptualising national identity change in small states, securitisation theories and Nordic security.
Särkkä has previously worked as a Senior Advisor of the Doctoral School for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki, as a Researcher and Special Advisor in the Finnish Defence Forces, as a Visiting Lecturer at the National Defence University in Finland, as well as a politics teacher at the University College London, UK.
She holds both a PhD and Master’s degree in political science from the University of Helsinki. In her doctoral thesis “Rhetoric of NATO in Finland’s Security Policy Debate” (2019) she focused on studying changes in Finland’s security policy and NATO during the post-Cold War period. She is also a graduate of University College London (UCL), UK and Science Po Lille in France, where she specialised in French foreign and security policy and language, and European Union politics and law. She is also a trained high school history and civics teacher, her favorite topics being international relations and political history of modern Finland.
Särkkä actively engages in public debate on Finland, NATO, and global security issues in both national and global media. She speaks Finnish, English and French fluently, and likes to study foreign languages in her free time. Her most recent language acquisition is colloquial Arabic.
Expertise
Finnish foreign and security policy, NATO, Nordic security and defence co-operation, French foreign and security policy, politics and society
Degrees
Doctor of Social Sciences, Doctoral Programme in Political, Societal and Regional Change, University of Helsinki 2013-2019
Postgraduate Teaching Certificate (PGCE), University of Helsinki 2017-2018
Master of Social Sciences, Major in Political Science, University of Helsinki 2002-2003
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Modern European Studies, University College London 1997-2001
Certificat d’Etudes Politiques, Sciences Po Lille 1999-2000
International Baccalaureate (IB) -diploma, Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific 1995-1997
Language skills
Finnish, English, French, German, Swedish, Arabic, Italian
Projects
Finland as a NATO member – the potential of deepening bilateral and minilateral defence cooperation within a multilateral framework
NATO in the North, the North in NATO
NATO nuclear deterrence and its implications for Finland