Inside the Most Prepared Country on Earth

Why Finland is Preparing for war with Russia

I traveled to Finland to train for arctic warfare and to learn what compelled the Finns to join NATO after decades of neutrality. I also visited the Finland-Russian border to understand how Finland’s relationship with its long-time neighbor and former occupier has changed.

Map Data from:
MAP DATA - Natural Earth
NASA
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CShapes
-- VIDEO CHAPTERS --
0:00 Intro
2:28 Arriving on Base
5:17 Arctic Forge
7:28 Arctic Survival Training
10:43 The Battle Begins
22:30 History
26:16 Impact of History
28:51 Back on the Battlefield
31:55 History II Cold War
34:43 From Neutral to NATO
38:11 The Border
43:15 The Bunkers
49:38 Conclusion

AI Disclosure: Occasionally, we use AI to create some of the imagery in our videos, which our (very talented) animators then spend weeks developing into what you see in the final video. When AI is used to generate any imagery that may appear onscreen, we'll add this to the video description. We're learning as we go about AI usage and transparency, and appreciate your thoughts.

About:
Johnny Harris is an Emmy-winning independent journalist and contributor to the New York Times. Based in Washington, DC, Harris reports on interesting trends and stories domestically and around the globe, publishing to his audience of over 5 million on Youtube. Harris produced and hosted the twice Emmy-nominated series Borders for Vox Media. His visual style blends motion graphics with cinematic videography to create content that explains complex issues in relatable ways.