FINLAND is not technically part of "eastern Europe" but this blog has long argued that the term is meaningless anyway. And as Alexander Stubb is in London, I am bending the rules a little and featuring his speech today at the LSE. The only thing I don't like about it is the title. "Dignified foreign policy" has echoes of stiff-upper-lip decline management of the kind that British diplomats have practised over the past 60 years. But the speech itself is well worth reading in full. His main argument is that the "west" (ie EU and America) has largely failed in promoting democracy and human rights because we are so blind to our own imperfections. Mr Stubb quotes the former Finnish president Paasikivi, who said (roughly) that "acknowledging the truth is the beginning of wisdom".
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