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Led by the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program , the International Security Program , Defending Democratic Institutions , and the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy , CSIS provides strategic thinking on the range of efforts to counter terrorist groups and their methods across the world.

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Assessing Israel’s Strike on Iran

In its April 19 attack on Iran, Israel avoided further escalation, while also threatening Iran's most sensitive locations. New CSIS analysis shows how it walked the tightrope.

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• The Iran-Israel Air Conflict, One Week In
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How Might Israel Strike Back?

Commentary by Daniel Byman — April 16, 2024

The Islamic State in Khorasan Province: Exploiting a Counterterrorism Gap

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The Coming Conflict with Hezbollah

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CSIS and the U.S. Naval Institute are excited to host Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Congressman Mike Waltz (R-FL) for a Maritime Security Dialogue on the importance of strengthening the U.S. maritime sector to compete with global threats.  

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• A Research Guide
• Research Paper Topics

40 Terrorism Research Paper Topics

Read also: How to start off a research paper ?

• How does the development of technologies affect the tactics of terrorists?
• The tragedy of 9/11
• The Incels movement: a growing danger?
• Terrorism and religion
• Using minors and vulnerable social groups in terrorist acts
• The role of terrorism in the creation and development of Israel
• The most powerful international terrorism groups: Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and others
• Partisan movements and terrorism
• The history of terrorism
• What methods are justified when fighting terrorism?
• Hiroshima bombing: can it be considered terrorism?
• Terrorism in media and films
• The process of radicalization. The creation of terrorist groups
• Motivations of terrorist groups
• Terrorism and Mafia: similarities, differences and cooperation
• Terrorism as a tool for politics. Can it be used to benefit some particular political forces?
• Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp: was it justified?
• Suicide bombing and psychological conditioning of suicide bombers
• Bioterrorism
• Terrorism and human trafficking
• Terrorism threat and the international travel safety
• Is non-violent response to terrorism possible?
• The ways to work with society to prevent terroristic acts
• The first psychological aid to the victims or witnesses of terrorist act
• Why terrorists use hostages? What shall the potential hostages do to survive?
• The main differences between political and non-political terrorism
• The recruiting strategies of terrorists
• Counterterrorism all over the world
• The most prominent terrorist leaders
• The most famous counterterrorist operations
• What can society do to prevent terrorism?
• The future of terrorism. May it evolve?
• The process of taking responsibility for terrorist act: why and how the terrorists do this?
• The model of Israel society. Is it good for fighting terrorism?
• Terrorism as international crime
• Nuclear terrorism
• Terrorism and blackmailing
• Is it possible to exit a terrorist cell?
• Ideological terrorism
• The different definitions of terrorism and the cause of their creation

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Homeland Security & Emergency Management

Planning for research, suggested handbooks & research guides, formulate a research question using context, idea to research question to thesis.

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Most students decide on their topic first then try to find out if there has been anything written on the subject. WRONG ! It is necessary to do some planning and preliminary research before deciding! 

The table above illustrates how a research question develops from a broad topic to a focused research question . A concept map should help you identify a sub-topic and possible issues or problems .

Use the resources shared in this guide as well as preliminary research to explore your topic further. Preliminary research will provide some context to help you consider a possible research question.

1. Start with a general subject you think you want to explore

Example: Lone wolf terrorism, electronic surveillance, social media use in emergencies, unmanned systems, suicide bombers. These look more like headings in an Encyclopedia than topics for a paper.

2. Look for particular aspects of the general subject you might want to explore further.

• Look at the texts assigned in class or ones you have used for other classes.
• Read some background sources. You may not use these sources as evidence in your paper, but they can help you find and narrow a topic.
• Look at one or two basic books on the subject. Scan the Table of Contents; Index. Browse the Chapters.

3. Once you have picked an aspect, develop some research questions about the aspect you have selected. You will probably need to find some pre-research and find books or chapters in books on the particular aspect you have selected.

• Avoid questions that can be answered by a simple description
• Avoid yes/no questions
• Avoid questions that are too broad
• Avoid questions like What would have happened if…

4 . Now you may be ready to develop your thesis and start your real research. A research paper is not just a collection of facts or bits of information. It usually takes the form of an argument in support of a thesis. 

• A thesis is not a description of your paper, though it should be clear from your thesis what your paper is about. Example. This paper is about the use of non-violent tactics used to protest the War in Vietnam. This is a description . not a thesis 
• A thesis is not a question, though it comes from a question that a researcher asked. Example: Were non-violent tactics successful in bringing an early end to the war in Viet Nam? This is a question not a thesis
• A thesis is not a statement of fact Example: Many college students were involved in non-violent protests against the war in Viet Nam. - this is a statement not a thesis.
• A thesis is not a statement of personal opinion. Though it should reflect what you have concluded, a thesis is not a mere statement of your own personal beliefs or prejudices.

A thesis is a specific, possible, debatable answer to a question that can be supported by evidence. It makes an assertion that sets up an argument. It is then the writer’s job to supply evidence to prove their point in the rest of the paper.

Example of a Thesis:   The Vietnam War protest movement was more about white, middle-class young men being drafted and then sent into war than it was about stopping an unjust war.

Example of a Thesis:  Although the timber wolf is actually a timid and gentle animal, it is being systematically exterminated because people wrongfully believe it to be a fierce and cold-blooded killer.

Hint:   Use a formula to develop a working thesis statement (which you will need to revise later). Here are a few examples:

• Although  ______ have argued that ______, closer examination shows that ______.
• ______ uses ______ and ______ to prove that ______.
• Phenomenon X is a result of the combination of ______, ______, and ______.
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Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences (2002)

Chapter: 4. recommendations for research, 4 recommendations for research.

This analysis suggests a number of areas in which systematic theoretical and empirical research—some ongoing, some new—can create, confirm, refine, and reject understandings about terrorism as a social and political phenomenon, thereby improving the knowledge base for efforts to contend with it. As is the case throughout this report, we highlight Islamic-based terrorism, but many of the research recommendations cover a wider range of terrorist activities. We present these suggested areas in the form of a numbered list.

ORIGINS, CHARACTERISTICS, AND DYNAMICS OF TERRORISM

To develop individual-level background profiles of terrorists, using as many samples of terrorists as can be made available. Entries in these profiles could include data on family background (parents’ occupations or economic circumstances, size of family, place in sibling order), education, job history, political history, circumstances of recruitment and indoctrination into terrorism, and career history as a terrorist. Such research must rely on multiple unrepresentative samples, including populations of detainees, terrorist suspects garnered from intelligence sources, and writings of terrorists themselves if available. Comparisons with like populations—persons engaged in illegal international drug trafficking, members of religious cults and extremist movements—might also prove of some use.

To assess the motivational dynamics of terrorists and the characteristics of their value systems. Extremely difficult to

conduct, this kind of research could tap data dealing with past psychological histories of terrorists, attitudes toward authority, religiosity, and history of mental disturbance, as well as psychological measures of narcissism, ambivalence, and different types and levels of psychological commitment to terrorist activities. Information could come from some of the same samples that would yield individual-level background profiles. Also useful would be applications of cognitive analysis in the field of computer science and facets of artificial intelligence to untangle and structure the constituent elements of value structures.

To examine the evidence regarding impacts of values on actions, in order to derive knowledge about factors that serve as critical drivers to transform potential or latent terrorists into overt terrorists.

To determine the types and range of structures, processes, and organizational careers of terrorist organizations.

With respect to structure, comparative studies could yield structural typologies of terrorist organizations—hierarchical or flat structure, religious or secular, types of sanctions holding them together, and types of leaders, including level of internal differentiation of leadership. Estimates of organizational effectiveness and vulnerability according to type could also be generated.

With respect to group processes, empirical study could reveal typical communication processes and breakdowns, bases of internal conflict, competition among leaders, breakdown and restoration of social control, formation of subcliques, coordination of attacks and other operations, conduct of relations with other groups and networks, and modes of contending with pressures from outside, including states in their host societies.

With respect to the careers of organizations, study could yield knowledge about conditions facilitating the formation of groups; patterns of recruitment; the role of religious and nonreligious leaders; the impact of terrorist success, failure, and inaction on organizational morale and momentum; tendencies to transform into lobbies or political parties; schismatic tendencies and their consequences; and conditions contributing to the stagnation and extinction of terrorist organizations.

With respect to the power base, it is important to determine the resources available to terrorist organizations as a way of understanding their capabilities in terms of funding, training, information, and refuge.

To develop estimates of the probability of selection of different patterns of action and different types of targets by terrorist groups. Factors to be taken into account in generating such estimates include symbolic resonance with the ideological emphases of terrorist organizations (in the Middle East, anti-Christian, anti-Israel, extreme Jewish fundamentalist, antiglobal capitalism, antisecular), terrorists’ own thinking about what kinds of events induce terror, their own strategic assessments about what kinds of events are maximally disruptive, the hopedfor political and military effects of attacks, and the degree to which different attacks are spectacular and news-generating. These kinds of estimates will be facilitated by gaining access to and systematizing work on the communication patterns, language, and idioms used by terrorists themselves.

To develop through comparative research knowledge about the relevant audiences for terrorism and modes of communicating with these audiences as a way of determining the impacts of audience on the content of communication.

To elucidate the effects of host states harboring or giving rise to terrorists, in terms of the impact of type of state (according to wealth, poverty, and political culture) and state policies (support, benign neglect, attempts to domesticate or coopt, political repression) on the sources of terrorist groups, their potential for recruitment, and the careers and effectiveness of terrorist organizations

To survey and monitor demographic trends in fertility, mortality, and nuptiality in societies likely to develop terrorist activity; to draw out implications of these patterns for their potential to generate economic and educational development and to produce classes of idle, poverty-stricken, and frustrated youth.

To develop further work on the cultural and social backgrounds to terrorism, especially different types of Islamic revivalism. This could be broken down into subtopics, such as transnational or global Islamic movements; linguistic, cultural, and contextual factors; local or regional movements; conditions that promote different types of revivalism; implications for Muslim communities in the United States; and case studies of religious-based terrorism in particular countries (Islamic as well as non-Islamic).

To conduct historical and comparative research on the effects of Western economic, political, cultural, military, and

foreign policy activities on less developed countries—by categories of countries and types of activities—as well as the short-term impact on the patterns of terrorist activities. Such research is difficult to conduct with reliability and objectivity, first, because of the limited theoretical foundations to guide such work; second, because it is difficult to isolate and trace these consequences through the fabric of the affected societies; and third, because the research topics themselves are ideologically loaded and lie at the basis of debates and political divisions in American society. It is also important to examine the current influences across developing countries—shaped by common historical experiences with the West—that may be used to encourage the diffusion of terrorism.

Cutting across all the above types of research is the methodological need to systematize and allow ease of access to different types of data and databases—such as these exist—that may be related to different facets of terrorism. These tasks are formidable because many of these data appear in different languages, are gathered for a great diversity of purposes, and are not immediately comparable with one another.

RESPONSES TO TERRORISM

To evaluate warning systems. Comparative empirical studies of past disaster and terrorist situations should attempt to evaluate the respective consequences of effective warnings, failures to warn, miswarnings (false alarms), and overwarning.

To monitor immediate responses to disasters. Most disasters are both sudden and ephemeral, and immediate responses give way quickly to a wide variety of recovery and rebuilding activities. Relevant research agencies (universities, think tanks, government) should establish the capacity to move quickly to the scene and study immediate responses while they are occurring. Most research on short-term disaster responses relies on hastily assembled journalistic reports and after-the-fact accounts based of recollections by participants. Both sources are subject to selectivity and distortion. Teams of behavioral and social science researchers, collecting data on the spot and analyzing them in the context of established knowledge about disaster situations, would supplement and probably improve

on existing ways of generating information and understanding. Some universities have a tradition of fire brigade research; efforts should be made to expand and systematize it.

To track group differences in response to crises. Most thinking about preparedness, warning, and response rests on the assumption of an undifferentiated community or public. Research on disasters, however, has revealed that individuals and groups differ both in readiness and response according to previous disaster experience, ethnic and minority status, knowledge of the language, level of education, level of economic resources, and gender (Tierney et al., 2001). Research on these and other differences should be extended and deepened and taken into account when designing systems of preparedness, warning, and response to terrorist attacks and other disaster situations.

To evaluate the behavior of agencies of response to crisis. There should be a deepening of research—basic, comparative, and applied—on the structure of agencies designated as responsible for dealing with attacks and other disasters, on the optimal patterns of information dissemination and communication among them, and on the most effective strategies of coordination and self-correcting of coordination under extreme conditions. Research should also focus on the origins and consequences of organizational failure, miscommunication, lack of coordination, and jurisdictional conflict and squabbling.

To evaluate the practice of ethnic profiling. Advocated as both a necessary and effective method of identifying and apprehending terrorist suspects, ethnic profiling raises both methodological and policy issues. A scientific review should be made of its methodological underpinnings, including implied statistical assumptions and possible fallacies. In addition, the practice of profiling raises many questions about intrusiveness on civil rights and possible boomerang political effects in affected groups. A starting point for research might be an examination of scientific issues and political effects in affected groups. Such a study group could consult not only the literature on terrorism but also that in other areas (e.g., police arrest practices, housing discrimination) in which the issue has emerged.

To assess both short-term and long-term group responses to terrorism and terrorist attacks in terms of attitudes and opinions. Questions would include the attitudinal consequences of living in prolonged situations of heightened anxiety, as well as

the dynamics of the balance between tendency toward national and community solidarity (tending to diminish group difference and conflict) and the tendency for fault lines dividing groups along ethnic, religious, and political dimensions to become more salient. In the current atmosphere, special attention should be given to the situation of Muslim Americans—blacks, Asians, and Arabs—who consider themselves part of the nation’s demographic, cultural, and political fabric but who have experienced considerable stress in the context of national reactions to terrorist activities emanating from the states of origin of some of these citizens. This last line of research could be supplemented by comparative work on ethnic, especially Muslim, minorities in European countries, including France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, where the forces shaping the national and ethnic loyalties differ from those in the United States.

To develop sequential and cumulative analyses of terrorist events. Because terrorist attacks tend to be sudden, surprising, and of short duration, they are usually regarded as discrete events. In reality, however, they build on one another, and any new attack or attacks is read, variably by different groups, in the context of the past history of such events. One of the interpretative frames of reacting to the attack on the World Trade Center, for example, was the memory of the unsuccessful effort to destroy it by bombing in 1993. Reactions to anthrax episodes were strongly conditioned—and exaggerated—because they occurred so soon in the wake of September 11. The whole history of mutual terrorism between Palestine and Israel is a history of stored memories of many past occurrences, evoked when new attacks occur and referred to continuously by both sides. Historical research on the interrelated sequencing of reactions, interpretations, and memories of terrorist events would deepen theoretical and empirical understanding of those phenomena. Conceptual models, such as path dependency (employed in economics, political science, and other fields) and the logic of “value added,” would offer guidelines to framing and conducting this kind of research. Formal modeling of these kinds of sequences should also be explored.

The events and aftermath of September 11, 2001, profoundly changed the course of history of the nation. They also brought the phenomenon known as terrorism to the forefront of the nation's consciousness. As it became thus focused, the limits of scientific understanding of terrorism and the capacity to develop policies to deal with it became even more evident. The objective of this report is to bring behavioral and social science perspectives to bear on the nature, determinants, and domestic responses to contemporary terrorism as a way of making theoretical and practical knowledge more adequate to the task. It also identifies areas of research priorities for the behavioral and social sciences.

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A Department of Homeland Security Emeritus Center of Excellence led by the University of Maryland

A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

Al-Qaida and Affiliated Movements

Bioterrorism

Chemical Threats

Community Resilience

Conflict Management and Negotiation

Crisis Communication and Management

Cybersecurity and Cyberterrorism

Ecoterrorism

Emergency Preparedness and Management

Ethnic Conflict and Violence

Foreign Fighters

Geographic Information System (GIS)

Global Security

Group Behavior

Homeland Security Education and Training

Innovation and Technology

International Relations

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)

Leadership in Violent Extremist Organizations

Left-wing Terrorism

Media and Terrorism

Natural Hazards

Not Terrorism Related

Nuclear Terrorism

Policing Terrorism

Political Conflict and Violence

Psychology of Terrorism

Public Communications and Warnings

Punishment of Terrorism

Radiological Threats

Red Teaming

Right-wing Terrorism

Risk Management

Scenario Planning and Forecasting

Security Policy

September 11th

Single-issue Terrorism

Social Media

Suicide Attacks

Terrorism and Economics

Terrorism Databases and Resources

Terrorism Trends

Terrorist Networks

Threat Assessment

Victims of Disasters

Violence Adoption and Desistance

Weapons and Tactics

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Domestic Radicalization and Violent Extremism

Countering and preventing terrorism is a primary concern for state and local law enforcement agencies as well as the federal government. Terrorists are those who support or commit ideologically motivated violence to further political, social or religious goals. The goal of NIJ’s work on domestic radicalization and violent extremism is to provide community leaders with evidence-based practices for bolstering resilience and developing communitywide responses that can prevent  radicalization and mitigate threats posed by those individuals mobilized to violent extremism.

Important questions remain about the nature of terrorism, but few are as vexing as why and how individuals become terrorists. This process, often referred to as “radicalization to terrorism” or "radicalization to violent extremism," is the central focus of NIJ’s research and evaluation efforts in this area of study.

To improve our understanding of radicalization to violent extremism as it occurs in the United States, NIJ supports research aimed at answering several questions:

• What common threads exist among cases of domestic radicalization to violent extremism?
• Which models of radicalization to violent extremism explain how the process occurs in the United States, and what can these models tell us about preventing and countering violent extremism?
• Why do people adopt radical beliefs, and why do some people choose to engage in violence to further those beliefs while others do not?
• How are U.S. communities responding to radicalization, and what works to prevent radicalization to violent extremism and terrorism?

NIJ has funded research on terrorism since 2002. Since 2012, NIJ has focused its research investments in this area on developing a better understanding of domestic radicalization and advancing evidence-based strategies for effective intervention and prevention of radicalization to violent extremism in the United States.

Following are short overviews of our primary focus in each year of the program and links to a list of awards funding in that year.

Fiscal Year 2023

In the twelfth year of the program (FY23), NIJ continued its focus in understanding and identifying threats of radicalization and violent extremism, as well as examining intervention and prevention strategies. In addition, with the increase of online engagement facilitating radicalization and violent extremism, this year’s funding also supported research that explored the role of social media, online forums and other internet platforms on violent extremism and radicalization. Overall, NIJ identified these areas of focus in the solicitation:

• Research to inform terrorism intervention and prevention efforts.
• Research on the role of communications in promoting and countering extremist content and information.
• Research on disengagement, deradicalization and the reintegration into society of individuals incarcerated for terrorism related offenses.
• Evaluations of programs and practices to prevent acts of terrorism.

NIJ selected five projects for funding that each address these areas of focus to inform policy on strategies to counter the increase in radicalization and violent extremism.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2023 projects.

Fiscal Year 2022

In the eleventh year of the program (FY22), NIJ shared many of the same objectives as the fiscal year 2021 solicitation of assembling knowledge for the prevention and intervention of radicalization to violent extremism. Additionally, in order to address a major research need and in direct response to the National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism , NIJ solicited research on mis-, dis-, and mal- information. In all, NIJ expressed interest in the following areas:

• Research to inform terrorism prevention efforts.
• Research on the disengagement, deradicalization, and reintegration of individuals convicted of terrorism related charges.
• Evaluations of programs and practices to prevent terrorism.
• Research on countering mis-, dis-, or mal-information.

Moreover, in response to NIJ’s congressional mandate for FY22, the solicitation emphasized a focus on the radicalization of White nationalists, and evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies were encouraged.

After a competitive review process, NIJ awarded grants for two projects.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2022 projects.

Fiscal Year 2021

In the tenth year of the program (FY21), NIJ desired insight into the domestic radicalization process to inform evidence-based prevention and intervention strategies. As highlighted in three focus areas, NIJ sought applicants conducting rigorous studies to

• Improve upon existing research on terrorism prevention,
• Increase knowledge on how to support the reintegration of individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges back into the community effectively, or
• Evaluate programs and practices aimed at preventing terrorism.

An overarching goal of this solicitation was to bridge the gap between research and practice by having applicants partner with agencies to develop novel and translational approaches for efficiently meeting the needs of current and former extremists. Ultimately, NIJ selected eight projects for funding.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2021 projects.

Fiscal Year 2020

In the ninth year of the program (FY20), NIJ aimed to support research that specified approaches to prevent terrorism effectively. 

An emphasis was placed on the following priority areas:

• Evaluations of terrorism prevention programs and practices.
• Research on the reintegration of individuals convicted of terrorism-related charges back into the community.

Funded projects demonstrated an effort to establish partnerships between researchers and practitioners in developing terrorism prevention strategies and underscored clear benefits and implications for criminal justice agencies.

 In total, NIJ chose three projects for funding. These projects examined the risk and protective factors increasing or decreasing an individual’s involvement in politically motivated violence, the differences among five far-right groups to create an analytic framework for policies that address far-right extremism, and how a community-based program can engage individuals at risk of radicalizing to violence.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2020 projects .

Fiscal Year 2019

In the eighth year of the program (FY19), NIJ emphasized an interest in evaluations of new and existing demonstration programs to prevent terrorism. NIJ encouraged applicants to submit projects which conduct phased, comparative and multi-site programmatic evaluations, help the field better understand risk factors, and develop risk assessment tools. NIJ also encouraged applicants to submit projects to increase knowledge surrounding deradicalization and disengagement, in addition to programming and services provided to those incarcerated for or released from terrorism related offenses.

NIJ’s priorities for the FY19 solicitation were to fund studies in three focus areas:

• Both formative and outcome evaluations of programs and practices to prevent terrorism
• Research to inform terrorism prevention efforts (same as previous years)
• Research on the reintegration of individuals to the community (new)

The first area of focus emphasized a phased evaluation approach. If applicants selected for awards under this area are successful in completing a formative and evaluability assessment, additional funding may be provided to those applicants for the subsequent phases of the evaluation (i.e. the process evaluation or the outcome/impact evaluation).  Applicants were also allowed to submit proposals for standalone outcome evaluations of existing strong and well-developed programs. Rigor and strong experimental designs were emphasized.

The second area of focus solicited research on prevention and intervention programs, as well as comparative analyses of these types of programs from various communities across the country. This area of focus attempted to develop knowledge and bridge gaps in research about pathways, risk and protective factors, and the assessment of those risk factors. This area also focused on the development of instruments, procedures, and practices to improve the identification of individuals at high-risk of becoming committed to terrorist ideologies and carrying out acts of terrorism. NIJ sought applications that build and improve on existing research in this area, including research that improves on data sources and methods.

The last area of focus emphasized needs-assessments and general knowledge building around the reintegration of persons released on terrorism-related charges. As this research area is highly understudied and still in its infancy, NIJ sought to build knowledge of pre-release and post-confinement characteristics of those convicted of committing acts of terrorism that may inform reintegration policies, programs, and practices.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2019 projects that were selected for funding .

Fiscal Year 2018

In the seventh year of the program, we re-emphasized many of the same themes from the fiscal year 2017 solicitation. Special attention was directed towards supporting replication and rigorous scientific evaluation of existing programs, as well as the development and evaluation of programs where none currently exist. We funded studies that apply an approach that engages researchers and practitioners in an active partnership to develop more effective solutions to specific problems, and to produce transportable lessons and strategies that may help other localities with similar problems.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2018 projects that were selected for funding .

Fiscal Year 2017

In the sixth year of the program, NIJ sought to support both programmatic evaluations and foundational research to better understand causes and contributing factors to radicalization. Areas of focus highlighted in the solicitation included (but were not limited to):

• Risk factors and risk assessment tools.
• Development of instruments, procedures, and practices.
• Comparative/multi-site programmatic evaluations and analyses.

Our overall with this solicitation was to bridge gaps in knowledge by understanding why and how radicalization occurs, and what research-informed steps can be taken to prevent it, or intervene before it leads to violence.

Read abstracts and see award details for the 2017 projects that were selected for funding .

Fiscal Year 2016

The fifth year of the program continued the theme of focusing on the application of research. Along with the release of many of the individual studies funded in the first two years of the program, NIJ is launching a series of papers that will synthesize the results of the studies and integrate findings from non-NIJ studies and reports to state plainly what the research tells us about radicalization pathways, behavioral indicators and so forth. Second, NIJ hosted a Program Status Meeting in December of 2016 which brought together NIJ grantees, practitioners, local/state/federal partners and stakeholders to discuss research findings and ideas for future research direction. The fiscal year 2016 solicitation called for papers that intended to support replication and evaluation of existing programs as well as the development and evaluation of programs where none currently exist. NIJ sought applications that applied an “action research” approach that engages researchers and practitioners in an active partnership to develop more effective solutions to specific problems and to produce transportable lessons and strategies that may help other localities with similar problems. The fiscal 2016 solicitation resulted in the funding of three new studies. Read abstracts and see award details for the 2016 projects .

Fiscal year 2015

Year 4 of the program shifted away from the construction of the evidence base to focus more on prevention and intervention. Two major activities demarcated this shift. The first was a major, three-day conference called “Radicalization and Violent Extremism: Lessons from Canada, the UK and the US,” which brought together the most influential research teams from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. It gathered the best researchers from five robust and comprehensive programs targeting terrorism and delivered practical, timely and plain spoken results to the practitioners who can use them.   

The second major activity was the launch of an effort to work with stakeholders in the field to determine the requirements for identifying individuals who would benefit from early intervention to dissuade radicalization or for determining whether an individual is eligible for diversion and rehabilitation programs. To accomplish this, NIJ supported a Department of Homeland Security Directorate of Science and Technology (DHS S&T) contract action that will scan and assess existing tools and programs against the requirements of stakeholders.

Lastly, NIJ launched a fourth call for proposals addressing radicalization to terrorism. The objectives of this call for proposals were to address radicalization to Indigenous forms of terrorism, to explore contemporary forms of radicalization, and to evaluate community-based prevention and intervention programs. Four projects were selected for funding. Read abstracts and see award details for the 2015 projects.

Fiscal year 2014

Year 3 of the program has focused on the dissemination of early results. NIJ hosted practitioners, including representatives from U.S. Attorneys' Offices, other federal agencies, state and local law enforcement agencies, and international partners, at a program update meeting in June 2014. The meeting provided a chance for the first-year grantees to present their initial findings and for the second-year grantees to introduce their new projects.

After a competitive review process, NIJ awarded grants for six research projects in 2014. Read abstracts and see award details for the 2014 projects .

Fiscal Year 2013

In the second year of the program, NIJ undertook a coordinated effort to bring together stakeholders and demonstrate the importance of the research. The effort culminated in a meeting of grantees and key stakeholders from federal, state and local criminal justice agencies.

The research and evaluation goals were expanded to include six research grants targeting new questions that were brought to the table. NIJ identified the following areas of interest for year 2 proposals:

• Comparative analysis of individual terrorists, individuals who perpetrate mass casualty events, gang members, hate group members and/or organized criminals
• Online radicalization to terrorism
• Evaluations of promising practices
• The relationship between and convergence of organized crime and either terrorist groups or transnational gangs

After a competitive review process, NIJ awarded six grants. 

Five of the six were awarded under the "Research and Evaluation on Radicalization to Violent Extremism in the United States" solicitation.  Read abstracts and see award details for those five projects .

One grant was awarded under the "Research and Evaluation on Transnational Issues Trafficking in Persons, Transnational Organized Crime and Violent Extremism" solicitation. Read an abstract and see award details for that award . 

Fiscal Year 2012 (Initial Year of the Program)

In the first year of the program, NIJ focused its call for research proposals on four areas of interest:

• Empirical evaluation of social science theories of domestic radicalization.
• Examination of the radicalization process for individuals, including “lone wolf” terrorists.
• Comparative analysis of terrorists, organized criminals, gangs, hate groups and/or cults.
• Influence of community-level and policing strategies on domestic radicalization.

After a competitive review process, NIJ awarded six grants and one evaluation contract.  Read abstracts and see award details for the 2012 projects .

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Which artificial sweetener is the safest choice?

There’s mounting evidence that artificial sweeteners may be linked to heart disease and other possible health risks. Scientists say the findings are far from definitive, however, with some leading researchers calling for better-designed clinical trials investigating the long-term health effects of sugar substitutes.

That’s why, in separate trials, researchers are actively working to get a clearer understanding of how artificial sweeteners affect blood glucose levels, gut microbiome health and the cardiovascular system. Some studies are beginning to compare the alternatives against each other, while others hope to learn how they affect the body compared to sugar.

As it is, it’s difficult for consumers to determine which sugar alternative carries the fewest health risks. Most of the research is observational , meaning it doesn’t prove cause and effect. In some cases, researchers looked at people who ate nonsugar sweeteners, analyzed their incidence of certain health risks like heart attacks or diabetes, then noted associations between the two.

All the widely consumed alternatives such as saccharin, aspartame, sucralose, stevia, xylitol and erythritol are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They’re found in countless products including sports drinks, energy bars, yogurts, cereals, beverages, candies, baked goods and syrups.

Even with FDA approval, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and professor of nutrition science and policy at Tufts University, said “they’re all potentially worrisome and all understudied.”

In recent research, cardiologist Dr. Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic found that the high concentrations of the sugar alcohol sweeteners xylitol and erythritol may cause the platelets in the blood to become more sticky and prone to clotting, in turn raising the risk of heart attack and stroke. The phenomenon is similar to what happens with high cholesterol, Hazen said. If they get big enough, the clots can block blood flow through crucial veins and arteries.

Some experts say that instead of trying to pinpoint the safest nonsugar sweetener, better studies need to determine whether there’s a benefit to swapping out sugar in the first place.

After publishing research finding a connection between erythritol and increased risk of heart attack and stroke , Hazen and his colleagues conducted the first head-to-head human trial comparing the effects of consuming erythritol versus sugar on the blood platelets that control clotting. The results of that study are pending publication.

Vasanti Malik, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Toronto, meanwhile, is conducting a study of more than 500 people directly comparing the health effects of drinking sugar-sweetened beverages, noncaloric sweeteners or water. Malik and her colleagues plan to measure obesity and heart health over time.

At Virginia Tech, registered dietitian Valisa Hedrick is working with the National Institutes of Health on another study comparing the effects of four different artificial sweeteners versus sugar on blood glucose levels and gut microbiome health. The study, which focuses on people with prediabetes, is a controlled feeding trial, meaning participants only eat the meals that NIH provides them, and nothing more.

This is important, Hedrick said, because one of the growing concerns with nonsugar sweeteners is that the products trick the brain in such a way that they increase sugar cravings. People may then end up eating more sugar throughout the day, spiking their blood glucose.

With a controlled study, the researchers can answer whether the sweeteners themselves raise blood glucose directly — not the sugar people could otherwise eat later.

The limits of sweetener studies

A research bias called reverse causation can make it difficult to draw decisive conclusions from prior studies, Malik said.

People often change their diets after they start developing diabetes or putting on weight, Malik said. These people, generally, are most likely to switch from sugar to nonsugar sweeteners. This is where the reverse causation comes into play.

“You get a spurious association between the intake of nonsugar sweeteners and the risk for diabetes,” she said. That is, the data ends up suggesting that these sweeteners are causing health problems that already existed.

Many studies also rely on people to report whether they’ve consumed nonsugar substitutes, which can be unreliable. Names like xylitol can be buried in a long list of ingredients.

Other studies, meanwhile — like Hazen’s erythritol and xylitol studies — may focus directly on what happens in the body after someone consumes one of these sweeteners, but they tend to enroll small numbers of people and track them only for a short time.

“A lot of these studies are really hard to interpret,” said Dr. Michelle Pearlman, a gastroenterologist and the CEO and co-founder of the Prime Institute in Miami. “And the problem is that there’s no head-to-head trials of people eating candy bars versus xylitol, so I can’t make any blanket statements recommending one or the other.”

Both Hedrick and Malik hope to share results from their respective studies in the next several years.

“We need experimental science alongside more rigorous observational research,” Malik said. “There are trials underway, and I think in the next five years we’ll have more clarity on the topic. We’re just not quite there.”

In a statement, the Calorie Control Council, an industry trade group representing more than two dozen sweetener manufacturers, said studies linking alternative sweeteners to health risks are based on flawed research and that the products are safe.

“It is irresponsible to amplify faulty research to those who look to alternative sweeteners to reduce overall sugar intake as well as the millions who use it as a tool to manage their health conditions, including obesity and diabetes,” Carla Saunders, the trade group’s president, said in the statement.

Why it’s important to know

Most low-calorie and sugar-free foods contain at least one sugar substitute, and many contain several. These products are growing more popular, especially in the U.S. By 2033, market research suggests sugar substitutes could be worth more than $28.57 billion.

“They’re ubiquitous,” Mozafarrian said. “And they’re proliferating because people have become so obsessed with avoiding sugar.”

Mozaffarian said these sweeteners soared in popularity following changes to U.S. nutrition labeling requirements in 2016 .

The change required manufacturers to list added sugars on a separate line beneath total sugars. The idea was to help consumers differentiate between foods with naturally occurring sugars, like fruit and plain Greek yogurt, and foods that had sugars mixed in.

“Now, the food industry has a big incentive to make that ‘added sugars’ number as small as possible,” he said. “So you’re seeing these compounds in everything, and we still don’t have enough information on them.”

Some products are labeled as “artificial sweeteners” or “natural sweeteners” based on whether they’re derived from natural sources or chemically engineered.

Even natural sweeteners go through heavy chemical processing, said Dr. Maria Carolina Delgado-Lelievre, a cardiologist at the University of Miami.

For example, stevia comes from processed stevia plant extract, monk fruit sweetener comes from processing a chemical in a gourdlike fruit grown in China, and sucralose is a chemically altered version of sugar about 600 times sweeter, according to the FDA .

Aspartame and saccharin are from human-made fusions of amino acids and chemicals.

Many of these sweeteners are so potent in tiny quantities that they’re mixed with xylitol or erythritol to bulk them up and fill a packet, said the Cleveland Clinic’s Hazen.

Given this label confusion, Hedrick said researchers are increasingly using the term “nonsugar sweeteners.”

Health risks of added sugars

Sugar, of course, is one of the country’s most pressing public health problems. Especially in soda and juice, excess sugar fuels the ongoing obesity epidemic , contributing to heart disease, liver disease, cancer and diabetes .

However, there’s a big difference between processed, concentrated sugars like high-fructose corn syrup and the natural sugars found in fruits, Pearlman, the Miami gastroenterologist, said. Processed sugars are highly addictive.

“Anything with high-fructose corn syrup stimulates the same reward centers in our brain as cocaine and heroin,” she said. “Natural sugars from fruit act differently in the body.”

Sugar’s bad rap has much more to do with the quantity people consume than any intrinsically bad property, experts agree.

“Added sugar is nuanced,” Mozaffarian said. “When you try to take that very real nuance and turn it into a simple message, you get the industry misleading consumers that foods are ‘not good.’”

A little bit of added sugar in otherwise healthy foods, he said — such as lightly sweetened whole-grain cereals — is usually OK.

“The harms of these different nonsugar sweeteners have been greatly underemphasized and the harms of small amounts of added sugar have been overemphasized,” he argued.

Sugar substitutes for children?

The U.S. government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that anyone over the age of 2 consume less than 10% of their daily calories from added sugar, or the equivalent of roughly 12 teaspoons of added sugar. In reality, as of 2018, people in the U.S., including children, were consuming about 17 teaspoons of added sugar per day, on average.

Recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture implemented a new rule limiting added sugars in public school lunches . Michael Goran, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine, said he worries that schools will replace sugary foods with artificially sweetened foods to comply with the new rules.

“There’s this general perception that these sweeteners are safe alternatives, but if they’re broadly applied to children, I unfortunately think that’s very risky,” he said.

Mozaffarian said that at their current levels of added sugar, most yogurts would no longer be allowed in school lunches once the new rule goes into effect.

“They’re just above the new limit, so it’s likely these yogurts are now going to be made with a series of sweeteners with uncertain health effects,” Mozaffarian said.

In the meantime, Pearlman said, it’s easy to see they haven’t helped the population become healthier on the whole.

“We have more chronic disease, more diabetes today than we’ve ever had before,” she said. “That shows that despite the diet industry being worth billions of dollars, we’re clearly missing the ball.”

A confusing body of limited research, coupled with the lack of clarity on food labels, puts consumers in a tough position when it comes to selecting the healthiest choices, the experts concluded.

All agreed on the best solution:

• Eat as many whole, unprocessed foods as you can.
• The less processed a food, the less likely it is to be loaded with added sugars or nonsugar sweeteners.

“If I had the choice of eating a store-bought cookie with a lot of sweeteners in it, a store-bought cookie with monk fruit, or a homemade cookie with sugar, I would choose the homemade cookie,” Goran said. “You can still enjoy the cookie, but maybe put a little less sugar in there.”

NBC News contributor Caroline Hopkins is a health and science journalist who covers cancer treatment for Precision Oncology News. She is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.  

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High school student curiosity drives new open-source science curricula

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Banner image: "Drivinq questions" boards, such as this one featuring burning questions about Arctic wildfires, sit at the heart of new, three-year science curricula. (Credit: inquiryHub)

A coalition of educators from 10 states and led by the University of Colorado Boulder has released a new series of free science curricula for high school students—touching on issues critical to the lives of young people, from wildfires to rising sea levels and cancer biology.

  Check out the OpenSciEd High School curricula

The new curricula, called OpenSciEd High School , is a three-year high school science program designed by a consortium of developers led by the inquiryHub, a research-practice partnership based at CU Boulder. The ambitious curriculum project reflects the collaborative efforts of the OpenSciEd High School Developer’s Consortium, which also includes Northwestern University, BSCS Science Learning, the Dana Center at the University of Texas Austin and Denver Public Schools. Ann Rivet of Columbia University led the integration of Earth and space science in the curricula.

Any teacher or school across the United States can download these materials at no cost, said William Penuel, who led the $7 million project . 

“This project has been a partnership of unprecedented scale in the development of high-quality instructional materials in science,” said Penuel, distinguished professor in the Institute of Cognitive Science (ICS) and School of Education at CU Boulder. “It’s also been a partnership that has kept its eyes always on the prize of giving all high school students the opportunity to experience science as relevant to their lives and as an important resource for improving their communities.”

Penuel noted that the curricula take a new approach to teaching about science—giving kids opportunities to get their hands dirty (in some cases literally) and ask and answer their own questions about the natural world.

Educators create a sample driving questions board during an inquiryHub workshop. (Credit: inquiryHub)

Educators learn how to guide their students through new science curricula during a professional development workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Credit: inquiryHub)

High school students, for example, might shine heat lamps on pieces of construction paper to learn how ice of different colors melt at different speeds in the Arctic. They may create static electricity by rubbing balloons on various objects to understand why lightning strikes in some places around the world and not others. They might also crush pieces of foam together to simulate how the motion of tectonic plates gives rise to mountain ranges like the Rockies.

OpenSciEd High School was guided by the non-profit organization OpenSciEd with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Walton Family Foundation and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The Consortium’s curriculum development also benefited from input from a 10-state steering committee, the Learning in Places group, and Science Educators for Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice.

Kate Henson, director of K-12 STEM teaching and learning at inquiryHub, said the team designed its materials with real teachers and students from 310 schools. 

“They’re designed for teachers by teachers,” Henson said. “These are people who understand the demands of the classroom. They understand the scaffolds and support that students need.”

Driving questions

Henson added that, in many cases, traditional curricula treat science as a set of facts that students need to memorize. OpenSciEd High School hinges on a student’s own curiosity. 

Take, for example, one biology unit focusing on the spread of wildfires around the world. Students begin by hearing about an ecological puzzle: In some parts of the Arctic, “zombie” fires can form in the carbon-rich soil below ice. Students may wonder: What’s in the smoke from those zombie fires? Where do the fires get oxygen to burn? They write their questions down on what Henson and her colleagues call a “driving questions board”—then spend the next several weeks answering them.

“The whole instructional model has a storyline that is designed to make the learning coherent from the student perspective,” Henson said.

Developing the curricula took years of hard work. 

First, inquiryHub researchers surveyed real high school students, including many from communities underrepresented in the sciences, about the topics they most wanted to learn about. Then the group worked with education researchers, high school teachers, school district administrators and more to design the curricula. Finally, the team field tested the lessons in classrooms serving roughly 19,000 students. The curricula align with the Next Generation Science Standards, a set of standards that guide science education in states across the country, including Colorado. 

The inquiryHub group also offers a range of professional development resources to guide teachers through implementing this new way of teaching science. 

The team hopes the curricula will help provide all high school students, no matter their backgrounds, access to a high-quality science education and give them tools to begin solving issues facing their own communities.

“These are for everybody,” Henson said. “And they’re all free, so teachers are able to adapt them to their own local contexts.”

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Research: How Passion Can Backfire at Work

• Erica R. Bailey,
• Kai Krautter,
• Adam D. Galinsky,
• Jon M. Jachimowicz

And how managers should handle this double-edged sword.

Passion has long been championed as a key to workplace success. However, scientific studies have found mixed results: On the one hand, some studies find evidence that passionate employees tend to perform better, while other research has documented null or even negative effects on performance. What’s the root of these inconsistent findings surrounding passion? And how can we reap the benefits of passion without falling prey to its downsides? Through a series of studies with more than 1,000 employees from the U.S. and China, researchers shed light on these questions by showing that passion is associated with overconfidence in our own performance. Although this passion-driven overconfidence is not necessarily harmful — and in certain contexts, it may even be helpful — their findings suggest that managers should take steps to mitigate the potential negative consequences of the overconfidence that may go hand in hand with passion.

From business leaders to athletes to everyday employees, passion is often cited as a key ingredient in the success of high achievers. Consider Elon Musk, whose passion is undeniable. He followed this drive and went on to popularize electric cars through Tesla and reinvigorate space transportation via SpaceX.

• EB Erica R. Bailey is an Assistant Professor in the Management of Organizations group at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Her research primarily focuses on authenticity and the self, asking questions like, how do we define who we are? When do we experience that sense of self in everyday life? What barriers prevent us from sharing that self fully with others?
• KK Kai Krautter is a PhD student in the Organizational Behavior Unit at the Harvard Business School. His research interests revolve around maintaining passion for work over time as well as flexibility in extraversion between different situations.
• WW Wen Wu is a professor at School of Economics and Management, Beijing Jiaotong University. His research focuses on leadership, emotions, and employee proactivity.
• Adam D. Galinsky is the chair of the Management Division at the Columbia Business School. He co-authored the critically acclaimed and best-selling book,  Friend & Foe  (Penguin Random House, 2015), and delivered a popular TED talk,  How to Speak Up for Yourself .
• Jon M. Jachimowicz is an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior Unit at the Harvard Business School. He received his PhD in management from Columbia Business School. He studies how people pursue their passion for work, how they perceive passion in others, and how leaders and organizations seek to manage for passion.

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Written Testimony from Director Kimberly Cheatle to the Oversight Committee on the Attempted Assassination of Former President Trump

Good morning, Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin, and distinguished members of the Committee. 

My name is Kimberly Cheatle, and I am the Director of the United States Secret Service. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. Last week, I provided a briefing to both chambers of Congress, and I am here today to answer your questions to the best of my ability. 

The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13th is the most significant operational failure at the Secret Service in decades and I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts. I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the family of Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief and a hero, who was killed in this senseless shooting. I would also like to acknowledge those who were injured in Butler, Pennsylvania, David Dutch and James Copenhaven, and I wish them a speedy recovery.

I would be remiss if I did not also extend my condolences on the passing of your colleague, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. Ms. Jackson Lee was always engaged in the oversight of the Secret Service and her passing is a great loss to this body. 

The Secret Service’s solemn mission is to protect our nation’s leaders. On July 13th, we failed. As the Director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse. As an agency, we are fully cooperating with the FBI’s investigation, the oversight you have initiated here, and conducting our own internal mission assurance review at my direction. Likewise, we will cooperate with the pending external review and the DHS Office of the Inspector General. 

We must learn what happened and I will move heaven and earth to ensure an incident like July 13th does not happen again. Thinking about what we should have done differently is never far from my thoughts. 

The Secret Service currently protects 36 individuals on a daily basis, as well as world leaders who visit the United States, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in Washington today. 

At the outset, let me state unequivocally: Nothing I have said previously should be interpreted to place blame for this failure on our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners who supported the Secret Service in Butler, Pennsylvania. We could not do our job without them.

An assassination attempt on a Secret Service protectee is the worst nightmare for the men and women who work around the clock every day of every year to prevent such attacks from happening in the first place. Throughout our 159-year history, assassination attempts have been made, uncovered, and thwarted on those we protect. Our agents, officers, and support personnel understand that every day we are expected to sacrifice our lives to execute a no fail mission. 

As witnessed on July 13th, our special agents shielded former President Trump with their own bodies on-stage while shots were being fired, selflessly willing to make the ultimate sacrifice without hesitation. I am proud beyond words of the actions taken by the former president’s detail, the counter-sniper team that neutralized the gunman, and the tactical team that provided cover during the evacuation. 

I will be transparent as possible as I speak with you, understanding that at times, I may be limited in providing a thorough response in this open setting due to risks associated with sharing highly sensitive protective methodologies. There are multiple ongoing investigations into this incident, hundreds of people to interview, and thousands of documents to review. I do not want to inadvertently provide you today with inaccurate information. I may not be able to speak specifically to certain items that have circulated over the past nine days. 

Since January 1, 2024, we have successfully secured over 7,500 sites. It is important to note that no two events are the same. Every protective advance comes with its own set of challenges and requires a customized mitigation strategy including specific assets, personnel, and technology. 

During every advance, we attempt to strike a balance between enabling the protectee to be visible and our protective requirements to be secure. I know this because I have spent 29 years in this agency. 

I came up through the ranks: I’ve secured events for every president since President Clinton, supervised on VP Cheney’s detail, led our training center, oversaw all investigations and protective visits in the state of Georgia, supervised on VP Biden’s detail and oversaw the agency’s entire protective mission during the Trump Administration.  

The comprehensive advance process involves collaborative planning between the Secret Service, the protectee’s staff, and our local law enforcement partners. Planning for this event began shortly after it was announced on July 3. The former President, like the current President, is subject to multiple threats at any moment in time. The level of security provided for the former President increased well before the campaign and has been steadily increasing as threats evolve. The security plan included a full assessment of the Butler Farm showgrounds to identify security vulnerabilities and craft a security plan for our protectee, attendees, and the public. 

The Secret Service constructed a security plan which consisted of three concentric rings of protection – the inner, middle, and outer perimeter – which are protected by Secret Service personnel in conjunction with our law enforcement partners. 

Security plans are multi-layered, providing 360 degrees of protection. These layers include personnel, technical, and tactical assets which are a force multiplier for our protective posture. 

Our methodology helps us deploy security assets to meet specific challenges posed by different areas of a protective site. While the assets deployed in each protection ring differ, each one is of equal priority from a security perspective. 

The Secret Service could not do our job without partnerships, whether that is with DoD to move presidential and vice-presidential assets, or local partners securing motorcade routes – we rely on the relationship built over years of working together to secure events and conduct investigations. 

We bring a multitude of tactical assets that range from Counter Snipers, Counter Surveillance, Counter Assault, K-9, Technical Security personnel and Intelligence teams, who are working collaboratively to ensure cohesion between all entities. 

Immediately following the assassination attempt, I directed the activation of my Crisis Center and assembled my executive team to begin surging more protective resources to the former President and to ensure the wellness of our people post incident, all while securing an active crime scene. I immediately ordered a re-evaluation of the Republican National Convention security plan and increased the security posture in the National Capital Region for all permanent protectees and sites. At the same time, I initiated a mission assurance investigation within the agency.

I have instructed my team that all necessary resources will be dedicated to investigating these matters. We will not rest until we have explored every option, and we will leave no stone left unturned. But I want to be clear – I am not waiting for these investigations to be completed prior to making changes. 

The job of a special agent is highly competitive, and only 2 percent of our applicants make it through the hiring process. From the moment I became Director, I have been focused on resourcing our personnel, obtaining technology, increasing staffing levels, and evaluating our hiring processes and training facilities. I am proud that this year we had a net gain of over 200 special agents. 

Over the past two weeks, we successfully led the planning and execution of the 75th NATO Summit and the Republican National Convention. Over the next few months, we will implement the security plans for the Democratic National Convention, the UN General Assembly, and have already begun planning and coordinating the 2025 Inauguration. It is now more important than ever for the men and women of the Secret Service to remain resilient and to focus on what is necessary to carry out our critical mission. 

Our agency needs to be adequately resourced in order to serve our current mission requirements and to anticipate future requirements. The heightened and dynamic threat environment, detailed in the September DHS Homeland Security Threat assessment and subsequent warnings by DHS and the FBI that the threat landscape was elevated, shows no signs of abating. The coming years will bring another Presidential campaign, the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games – which have been designated as a National Special Security Event, and thousands of events in between. I have no doubt that the processes I’ve implemented over the past 20 months as Director, in addition to my nearly 30 years of experience at this agency, have positioned the agency to be stronger. 

Our mission is not political. It is literally a matter of life and death, as the tragic events on July 13th remind us. I have full confidence in the men and women of the Secret Service. They are worthy of our support in executing our protective mission.

Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin, and members of the Committee, I will now answer any questions the Committee may have.

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2024 Investment Climate Statements: Finland

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Finland is a Nordic country situated north of the Baltic states, bordering Russia, Sweden, and Norway. It has excellent transportation links within the Nordic-Baltic region and is a member of the Schengen Zone within which internal border controls have been, for the most part, eliminated. In 2023, the population was around 5.6 million, with over 85 percent residing in cities in the country’s south. Helsinki is the capital and largest city, with a population of around 675,000 in the city and 1.5 million in the metropolitan area.

Finland is a member of the European Union and a part of the Euro area. In 2023, Finland joined NATO and concluded negotiations on a bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States. NATO membership and the DCA should benefit the country economically by increasing regional security and stability; and investments in the defense industry will create jobs and stimulate economic growth and trade. According to Finnish Customs, the United States was Finland’s biggest trading partner for exports in 2023.

As a modern, stable economy, Finland offers a well-developed digital infrastructure with stability, functionality, and a high standard of living. The country has a highly skilled, educated, and multilingual labor force with solid expertise in Information Communications Technology (ICT) and emerging technologies, including microelectronics; quantum and supercomputing; shipbuilding; forestry; and renewable energy. Finland and the United Sates are intensifying cooperation in various fields, including cybersecurity, 6G networks, nuclear, climate, energy, health, biotechnology, space, quantum technology, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies through bilateral joint statements and agreements.

In 2021, emerging from the pandemic, Finland’s economy recovered swiftly from recession to moderate growth of 2.6 percent, but growth slowed after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The center-right government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, formed in June 2023 following parliamentary elections in April 2023, aims to improve weak economic growth through changes to structural policies, including balancing public finances; spurring investment in education, research, and development; accelerating the green transition; and introducing labor market reforms. Labor unions engaged in a series of political strikes aimed at blocking the implementation of the labor market reforms during the spring of 2024.

At the same time, an aging population and a shrinking workforce are the most pressing demographic concerns for economic growth. According to the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Barometer 2023, over three-quarters of businesses report experiencing a talent shortage, with large foreign-owned companies being most negatively affected. In response, Finland aims to increase work- and education-based immigration through the Talent Boost program, revised for the years 2023-2027. The aim is to attract and improve the employment of international specialists immigrating to Finland.

Finland has set a target of becoming carbon neutral by 2035. To accelerate the green transition, the government is prioritizing investment projects in renewable energy production, industrial electrification, hydrogen economy, carbon capture and storage, and battery production to grant quicker permit processing times. The current pipeline of green investments amounts to approximately 230 billion euros ($247 billion), including projects by domestic and multinational companies. The high share of carbon-free electricity production in the domestic energy mix, which was 94 percent in 2023, facilitates the green transition.

The European Central Bank has tightened monetary policy in the euro area in response to high inflation, which has also slowed economic growth in Finland during the past two years. Industrial production and construction are sensitive to interest rate movements, which have reduced private consumption, investment, and the demand for housing in Finland. The Bank of Finland’s interim forecast indicates Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will decrease by 0.5 percent in 2024. Economists predict the economy will bounce back towards the end of the year, and GDP will grow by 1.7 percent in 2025. Inflation is projected to decline to below one percent during 2024, improving employees’ actual earnings and consumers’ purchasing power.

Russia’s war against Ukraine has impacted Finland’s economic activity and inflation through higher energy and commodity prices, the disruption of international commerce, and weaker confidence in the economy. Finnish Customs indicates the value of Finland’s exports of goods to Russia and Central Asia amounted to 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in 2023, a decrease of 50.5 percent compared to 2022. The overall economic effects of the war on the private sector have remained relatively small as companies have replaced Russian trade with other markets.

1. Openness To, and Restrictions Upon, Foreign Investment

• Policies Towards Foreign Direct Investment

The Finnis government is open to foreign investment. As an EU member state, Finland is committed to the free movement of goods, capital, persons, and certain services. Companies benefit from trade arrangements through EU and World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, and the protection offered by Finland’s bilateral investment treaties with sixty-three countries.

Private ownership and the participation of foreign companies or individuals are unrestricted, and the government promotes trade and foreign direct investment. Business Finland helps foreign investors set up businesses and provides free services ranging from data collection and matchmaking to location management. The organization offers funding for research and development work carried out by companies, research organizations, and public sector service providers in Finland: https://www.businessfinland.com/  

• Limits on Foreign Control and Right to Private Ownership and Establishment

The Act on Monitoring Foreign Corporate Acquisitions (172/2012) governs foreign investments in Finland. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment monitors and confirms foreign corporate acquisitions and decides whether an acquisition conflicts with securing national defense and safeguarding public order and security. If the ministry finds a critical national interest jeopardized, it must refer the matter to the Council of State, which may refuse to approve the acquisition. For more information: https://tem.fi/en/acquisitions  

In the non-military sector, Finnish companies considered critical for securing vital functions are subject to screening, which applies to foreign owners residing or domiciled outside the EU or the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment provides instructions for preparing the application/notification. The application and statement must also be accompanied by a form containing specific information required by EU regulation.

For defense acquisitions, monitoring applies to all foreign owners, who must apply for prior approval. “Defense” includes all entities that supply or have supplied goods or services to the Finnish Ministry of Defense, the Finnish Defense Forces, and the Finnish Border Guard, as well as entities dealing in dual-use goods.

Finland requires non-EU/European Economic Area (EEA) foreign individuals or entities to receive Defense Ministry permission before they purchase real estate. Companies registered in Finland with decision-making bodies of at least one-tenth non-EU/EEA origin must seek a permit. More information is available here: https://www.defmin.fi/en/licences_and_services/authorisation_to_non-eu_and_non-eea_buyers_to_buy_real_estate#a6591279  

In 2022, the European Commission published guidance for EU member states on assessing and preventing threats to EU security and public order from Russian and Belarusian investments. The direction highlights the increased risk from investments subject to Russian or Belarusian government influence in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calls for close cooperation between authorities involved in investment screening and those responsible for enforcing sanctions.

• Other Investment Policy Reviews

Finland is considered one of the most open economies in the OECD area with a stable economy and society, strong institutions, and low corruption that attracts foreign investors. Knowledge and innovation capacity are among the most critical factors bringing foreign firms to the Finnish economy, and salaries for high-skilled workers are considered relatively competitive compared to other Nordic states.

In 2021, the OECD launched the Impact of Regulation on International Investment in Finland report to analyze FDI flows toward Finland and other Nordic-Baltic countries and discuss the benefits of foreign investment for the Finnish economy. The OECD noted that several challenges may prevent Finland from exploiting its full potential as a destination for FDI.

The OECD recommended reviewing and streamlining inefficient and burdensome policies, diminishing red tape, and fostering competition to encourage new international investment and enhance the economic performance of existing players. Complex administrative procedures to recruit foreign talent and stringent labor market conditions affect growth prospects. Further policy responses that help businesses deal with skill shortages are essential to ensure attractiveness as an investment location. More information is available here: https://www.oecd.or g/publications/the-impact-of-regulation-on-international-investment-in-finland-b1bf8bee-en.htm  

Over the past three years, Finland has not undergone an investment policy review by the WTO or the United Nations Committee on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

• Business Facilitation

All businesses in Finland must be publicly registered at the Finnish Trade Register. The website is: https://www.prh.fi/en/kaupparekisteri.html .

The Business Information System (BIS) is an online service enabling investors to start a business or organization, report changes, close down a business, or conduct searches: https://www.prh.fi/en/kaupparekisteri/rekisterointipalvelut/ytj.html  

All businesses must also enter the VAT, Prepayment, and Employer Registers of Tax Administration. Instructions for registering a company can be found at this website: https://www.vero.fi/en/businesses-and-corporations/business-operations/tax-administrations-registers–business/  

Entrepreneurs can apply for a residence permit in Finland. Before a permit can be issued, entrepreneurs usually need to enter their business in the Trade Register maintained by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. https://migri.fi/en/entrepreneur  

In 2022, Finland introduced a long-term “D” visa for students, researchers, persons in managerial positions in companies, and their family members to increase the immigration of skilled labor. With a “D” visa, applicants can enter Finland immediately after receiving a favorable decision on the residence permit application, and the “D” visa sticker has been attached to the passport. For more information: https://migri.fi/en/d-visa  

• Outward Investment

International trade and external economic relations are central to Finland’s foreign and security policy. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs prepares and implements Finland’s trade policy within the framework of the EU.

Team Finland is a network of public sector bodies dedicated to helping Finnish companies grow and be successful in their dealings abroad. It also promotes the country’s image and attracts foreign investments and experts to Finland. The network offers tailor-made service packages for companies’ internationalization needs based on the services provided by the network actors. Service packages typically combine services provided by the Center for Economic Development, Transport and the Environment, Business Finland, Finnvera, and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. https://www.team-finland.fi/en/network-services-for-companies  

Business Finland is a public-sector operator and part of the Team Finland network. It helps Finnish Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) go international, encourages foreign direct investment in Finland, and promotes tourism. The organization focuses on agricultural technology, clean technology, connectivity, e-commerce, education, information and communication technology, digitalization, mining, and mobility. While many of Business Finland’s programs are export-oriented, they also seek to offer business and network opportunities within Finland that are not necessarily focused on exports. The organization employs 760 specialists at 40 foreign locations and 16 offices in Finland. https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/home  

The government generally allows domestic investors to invest abroad, with some exceptions. The defense ministry approves arms exports for military use, the National Police Board grants permission to export civilian weapons, and the foreign ministry oversees exports of dual-use products.

• 2. Bilateral Investment and Taxation Treaties

Finland has 55 Bilateral Investment Treaties in force but does not share a BIT or Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States. As an EU member state, Finland is a signatory to any treaty or agreement signed by the EU, including free trade agreements. A complete list of Finland’s investment agreements can be found at: https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/international-investment-agreements/countries/71/finland  

Finland and the United States signed a convention to avoid double taxation and prevent fiscal evasion concerning taxes on income and capital (TIAS 12101) that entered into force in 1990. In 2014, the two countries signed an intergovernmental agreement to implement the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which fights tax evasion and fraud. For more information: https://www.vero.fi/en/businesses-and-corporations/business-operations/financial-sector/fatca-crs-and-dac2/general-information/   https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/131/FATCA-Agreement-Finland-3-5-2014.pdf

Finland is a member of the OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting and a party to the two-pillar plan to address the tax challenges arising from the digitalization of the economy. For a list of Finland’s bilateral tax agreements, see: https://www.vero.fi/en/detailed-guidance/guidance/49062/tax_treatie/  

3. Legal Regime

• Transparency of the Regulatory System

In Finland, competition policy aims to create and maintain an environment where enterprises have a level playing field and an opportunity to succeed due to their expertise. The Competition Act (948/2011) is the base for the national competition policy, seeking to ensure sound and effective economic competition. The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority is responsible for applying the legislation. For more information: https://www.kkv.fi/en/competition-affairs/competition-act/  

Finland is subject to accounting, auditing, and financial reporting requirements established through EU regulations and directives as transposed into national laws and regulations. Finland has fully aligned its legal framework with the EU acquis communitaire related to accounting and auditing. For more information: https://www.ifac.org/about-ifac/membership/profile/finland#:~:text=In%20Finland%2C%20the%20Accounting%20Act,European%20Commission%20(EC)%20Regulations  

Finnish law does not require institutional investors and financial intermediaries to consider Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors when making investment decisions. Most institutional investors and financial intermediaries have signed the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and also consider sustainable development goals in their investment decisions. However, the Finnish Corporate Governance Code considers certain ESG factors in its recommendations, such as the composition of the company’s board of directors concerning gender. The Corporate Governance Code applies to all companies listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. https://cgfinland.fi/en/corporate-governance-code/  

In September 2021, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment released a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) finance roadmap, called the “Finnish Roadmap for Financing a Decade of SDG Action 2021.” The roadmap aims to support Finnish stakeholders with a goal of increasing financing for solutions to reach the SDGs in Finland and globally. More information can be found here: https://tem.fi/en/developing-finlands-sustainable-finance-ecosystems  

The Act on the Openness of Public Documents establishes the openness of all records in the possession of officials of the state, municipalities, registered religious communities, and corporations that perform legally mandated public duties, such as pension funds and public utilities. Exceptions can only be made by law or by an executive order for reasons such as national security. https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/act-on-the-openness-of-government-activities  

The Ministry of Justice maintains an online Finlex Data Bank database of up-to-date legislative and judicial information. Most of the databases are only available in Finnish and Swedish, but some translations of Finnish acts and decrees are also available in English and other languages. Case law in the legal literature database is also available in English. https://finlex.fi/en/  

The Ministry of Justice provides an online service to request and give statements electronically in connection with draft regulations, legislation, and other government documents. Public administration authorities can publish draft bills and regulations for public consultation. The service is available in Finnish and Swedish: https://www.lausuntopalvelu.fi/FI  

The Parliamentary Ombudsman exercises oversight to ensure that those who perform public tasks comply with the law and fulfill their responsibilities. The Ombudsman investigates complaints, conducts on-site inspections, and makes statements on legislative proposals. The scope of the Ombudsman’s oversight includes courts, authorities, and public servants, as well as other persons and organizations that perform public tasks. The Ombudsman submits an annual report to Parliament, including observations on the state of the administration of justice and any shortcomings in legislation. https://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/en/eoa  

The status of Finland’s public finances is available at Statistics Finland, Finland’s official statistics agency: https://www.stat.fi/en/topic/national-economy  

The status of Finland’s national debt is available at the State Treasury: https://www.treasuryfinland.fi/statistics/statistics-on-central-government-debt/  

• International Regulatory Considerations

Finland follows EU internal market practices, which define Finland’s trade relations both inside the EU and with non-EU countries. As a member of the WTO, Finland reports under the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT Agreement) all proposed technical regulations that could affect trade with other member countries. In 2021, Finland submitted two notifications of technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures to the WTO. It has submitted 105 notifications since 1995. Finland is a signatory to the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which entered into force on February 22, 2017.

• Legal System and Judicial Independence

Finland has a civil law system. European Community (EC) law is directly applicable in Finland and takes precedence over national legislation. The Market Court is a special court for rulings in commercial law, competition, and public procurement cases, and may issue injunctions and penalties against the illegal restriction of competition. It also governs mergers and acquisitions, may overturn public procurement decisions, and require compensatory payments. More information about the court is available here: https://oikeus.fi/tuomioistuimet/en/index.html  

Finland has been a party to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards since 1962. The provisions of the convention have been included in the Arbitration Act (957/1992).

The Oikeus.fi website https://oikeus.fi/en/index.html   contains information about the Finnish judicial system and links to the websites of the independent courts, the public legal aid and guardianship districts, the National Prosecution Authority, the National Enforcement Authority Finland, and the Criminal Sanctions Agency.

• Laws and Regulations on Foreign Direct Investment

The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment monitors foreign corporate acquisitions and is a national contact point for the EU screening regulation. The purpose of the Act on the Monitoring of Foreign Corporate Acquisitions in Finland (127/2012) (hereafter the Act) is to monitor and, if vital national interests so require, to restrict the transfer of influence to foreigners and foreign organizations and foundations. More information about the Act is available here: ihttps://tem.fi/en/acquisitions.

Under the Act, corporate acquisition refers to activities in which a foreign owner gains control of at least one-tenth, at least one-third, or at least one-half of the aggregate number of votes conferred by all shares in the company or a holding that otherwise corresponds to decision-making authority in a limited liability company or other monitored entity. For more information: https://tem.fi/documents/1410877/0/Kysymyksi%C3%A4+ja+vastauksia_en.pdf/0ef51799-6c84-9251-6cfe-188bc91c6f83/Kysymyksi%C3%A4+ja+vastauksia_en.pdf?t=1636548655250  

There is no primary or “one-stop-shop” website that provides all relevant laws, rules, procedures, and reporting requirements for investors. A non-European Economic Area (EEA) resident (persons or companies) operating in Finland must obtain a license or a notification when starting a business in a regulated industry. For more information: https://tem.fi/en/regulation-of-business-operations  

• Competition and Antitrust Laws

The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA) protects competition by intervening in cases regarding restrictive practices, such as cartels and abuse of dominant position, and violations of the Competition Act and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). Investigations occur both on the FCCA’s initiative and based on complaints. Where necessary, the FCCA makes proposals to the Market Court regarding penalties.

The FCCA requires notification on mergers and acquisitions that exceed certain turnover thresholds. The FCCA will intervene in the transaction if it deems it to prevent effective competition in Finland. The FCCA would investigate transactions where the parties’ combined turnover generated in Finland exceeds EUR 100 million and the total turnover generated in Finland of at least two parties exceeds EUR 10 million per party.

In international competition matters, the FCCA’s key stakeholders are the European Commission (DG Competition), the OECD Competition Committee, the Nordic competition authorities, and the International Competition Network (ICN). FCCA rulings and decisions can be found in the archive in Finnish. More information is available at: https://www.kkv.fi/en/facts-and-advice/competition-affairs/

• Expropriation and Compensation

Finnish law protects private property rights. Citizen property is protected by the constitution, which includes basic provisions in the event of expropriation. Private property is only expropriated for public purposes (eminent domain), in a non-discriminatory manner, with reasonable compensation, and in accordance with established international law.

Expropriation is usually based on a permit given by the government or on a confirmed plan and is performed by the District Survey Office. An expropriation permit granted by the government may be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court. Compensation is awarded at full market price but may exclude the rise in value due only to planning decisions.

Besides normal expropriation according to the Expropriation Act, a municipality or the state has the right to expropriate land for planning purposes. Expropriation is mainly for acquiring land for common needs, such as street areas, parks, and civic buildings. The method is rarely used: less than one percent of land acquired by the municipalities is expropriated. Credendo Group ranks Finland’s expropriation risk as low (1), on a scale from 1 to 7: https://credendo.com/en/country-risk/finland  

Dispute Settlement

• ICSID Convention and New York Convention

In 1969, Finland became a member state of the World Bank-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID; Washington Convention). Finland is a signatory to the Convention of the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (1958 New York Convention).

• Investor-State Dispute Settlement

The Finnish Arbitration Act (967/1992) applies to domestic and international arbitration without distinction. Sections 1 to 50 apply to arbitration in Finland, and Sections 51 to 55 apply to arbitration agreements providing for arbitration abroad and the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Finland. Of 229 parties in 2021, the majority (208) were from Finland.

In 2021, a Chinese investor brought the first known investment treaty claim against Finland. He was detained and had his business center raided and shut down on suspicion it was facilitating illegal immigration. The proceedings were ultimately settled between Finland and the claimant. For more information: https://investmentpolicy.unctad.org/investment-dispute-settlement/cases/1192/wang-v-finland  

• International Commercial Arbitration and Foreign Courts

Finland has a long tradition of institutional arbitration, and its legal framework dates to 1928. Today, arbitration procedures are governed by the 1992 Arbitration Act (as amended), which largely mirrors the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of 1985 (with amendments, as adopted in 2006). However, the UNCITRAL Model law has yet to be incorporated into Finnish law.

Finland’s Act on Mediation in Civil Disputes and Certification of Settlements by Courts (394/2011) aims to facilitate alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and promote amicable settlements by encouraging mediation and applies to settlements concluded in other EU member states: https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2011/en20110394.pdf

In June 2016, the Finland Arbitration Institute of the Chamber of Commerce (FAI) launched its Mediation Rules under which FAI will administer mediation: https://arbitration.fi/mediation/mediation_rules/  

Any dispute in a civil or commercial matter, international or domestic, which can be settled by agreement may be referred to arbitration. Arbitration is frequently used to resolve commercial disputes and is usually faster than court proceedings. An arbitration award is final and binding. FAI promotes the settlement of disputes through arbitration, commonly using the “FAI Arbitration/Expedited Arbitration Rules,” which were updated in 2020: https://arbitration.fi/en/arbitration/rules-and-guidelines/  

The Finland Arbitration Institute (FAI) appoints arbitrators both to domestic and international arbitration proceedings and administers domestic and international arbitrations governed by its rules. It also appoints arbitrators in ad hoc cases when the arbitration agreement provides and acts as appointing authority under the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. The Finnish Arbitration Act (967/1992) states that foreign nationals can act as arbitrators. For more information: https://arbitration.fi/en/arbitration/  

Finland signed the UN Convention on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration (“Mauritius Convention”) in March 2015. Under these rules, all documents and hearings are open to the public, interested parties may submit statements, and protection for confidential information has been strengthened.

• Bankruptcy Regulations

The Bankruptcy Act (120/2004) governs bankruptcy proceedings aimed at liquidating the assets of an insolvent company to satisfy its creditors and dissolve the company. The act was amended in 2019 to simplify, digitize, and speed up bankruptcy proceedings. The amended act allows administrators to send notices and invitations to creditor addresses registered in the Trade Register. This improves accessibility for foreign companies that have established a branch in Finland. For more information: https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2004/en20040120.pdf

The Bankruptcy Ombudsman is an independent authority that supervises the administration of bankruptcy estates in Finland . The Office of Bankruptcy Ombudsman is a member of the International Association of Insolvency Regulators (IAIR). For more information: https://www.konkurssiasiamies.fi/en/index.html  

The Reorganization of Enterprises Act (1993/47) establishes a legal framework for reorganization with the aim to provide an alternative to bankruptcy proceedings. The act excludes credit and insurance institutions and certain other financial institutions. Recognition of restructuring or insolvency processes initiated outside of the EU requires an exequatur from a Finnish court. https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kaannokset/1993/en19930047  

4. Industrial Policies

• Investment Incentives

Foreign-owned companies in Finland are eligible for government and EU incentives on an equal footing with Finnish-owned businesses. Companies receive support through grants, loans, tax benefits, equity participation, guarantees, and employee training.

The income tax rate for limited liability companies and other corporate entities is 20 percent. According to the 2023 International Tax Competitiveness Index, the Finnish tax system is the 19th best tax code among 38 OECD countries. For more information: https://www.vero.fi/en/businesses-and-corporations/business-operations/foreign-business-in-finland/taxation-in-finland/   and https://taxfoundation.org/location/finland/  

Startups, SMEs, and large companies can benefit from Business Finland’s incentives: https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/do-business-with-finland/invest-in-finland/business-environment/incentives/incentives-short   and https://www.businessfinland.fi/48d8e1/globalassets/julkaisut/invest-in-finland/business-guides-and-fact-sheets/iif_factsheet_incentives.pdf

Centers for Economic Development, Transport, and the Environment (ELY Centers) support the establishment, growth, and development of SMEs by providing advisory, training, and expert services, and by granting funding for investment and development projects. Large companies may also qualify for assistance or funding if they significantly increase employment in their region of operation. Startups can receive subsidies to establish and expand business operations during their first 24 months. For more information: http://www.ely-keskus.fi/en/web/ely-en/business-and-industry;jsessionid=0B09A1B237B74FAC485AAD7C8E068DBF  

As part of its Sustainable Growth Program, which is funded by the EU Recovery Plan, Finland is promoting energy investments and energy infrastructure projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Finland and support Finland’s target to be carbon neutral by 2035. For more information: https://tem.fi/en/-/energy-investments-of-finland-s-sustainable-growth-programme-promote-the-green-transition   and https://www.businessfinland.fi/en/for-finnish-customers/services/funding/energy-aid  

Government aid is available for the implementation of energy audits, investments that conserve energy, and investments related to the use of renewable energy, as well as for European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations (ESCO) projects. For more information: https://www.motiva.fi/en/solutions/policy_instruments/energy_aid  

Finnvera offers loans, domestic guarantees, export credit guarantees, and other services associated with financing exports: https://www.finnvera.fi/eng  

• Foreign Trade Zones/Free Ports/Trade Facilitation

The EU Customs Code (UCC), which entered into force on May 1, 2016, harmonized free trade zone area regulations in the EU.

The Åland Islands are one of the unique fiscal territories within Finland and the EU. The tax border separates the Åland Islands from the VAT and excise territory of the EU. VAT and excise are levied on goods imported across the tax border, but no customs duty is levied. In tax border trade, goods can be sold with a tax-free invoice in accordance with the detailed taxation instructions of the Finnish Tax Administration. Trade between Åland and non-EU countries is subject to the same regulations and instructions as trade between the EU and third countries. For more information: https://tulli.fi/en/businesses/aland-businesses  

• Performance and Data Localization Requirements

As an EU member state, Finland adheres to the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) (GDPR), an EU law that entered into force in 2016, and, following a two-year transition period, became law on May 25, 2018, without requiring EU member states to change national laws.

Finland’s Data Protection Act (1050/2018) supplements the GDPR. The Data Protection Ombudsman is a national supervisory authority that supervises compliance with data protection legislation. The office has approximately 45 specialists, including the Data Protection Ombudsman and two Deputy Data Protection Ombudsmen. For more information: https://tietosuoja.fi/en/home   and https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2018/en20181050.pdf

5. Protection of Property Rights

• Real Property

The Finnish legal system protects and enforces property rights and secured interests in property, both movable and real. Mortgages exist in Finland and can be applied to both owned and rented real estate. In Finland, real property formation, development, land consolidation, cadastral or boundary mapping, registration of real properties, ownership and legal rights, real property valuation, and taxation are all combined within one basic cadastral system (i.e. real estate register) maintained by the National Land Survey: https://www.maanmittauslaitos.fi/en/apartments-and-real-property  

Finland is not a contracting party to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on Mobile Equipment (CTC) and the Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment (Aircraft Protocol).

• Intellectual Property Rights

Finland is not included on USTR’s Special 301 Report or Notorious Markets List..

USTR’s 2022 Notorious Markets List mentions Finland for reportedly hosting a Flokinet server associated with infringing activity and reportedly hosting an FLVTO web server, a platform that allows the user to download music from YouTube and convert it to an mp3.

The Finnish legal system protects intellectual property rights (IPR), and Finland adheres to numerous international agreements. Finland ranked first among 129 countries in the Property Rights Alliance 2023 International Property Rights Index (IPRI), which concentrates on a country’s legal and political environment, physical property rights, and IPR: https://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/  

IPR enforcement in Finland is based on EU Regulation 608/2013. For more information, see: https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/customs-4/prohibitions-and-restrictions/counterfeit-piracy-and-other-ipr-violations_en  

IPR must be registered in Finland to be enforced under local laws, such as the Copyright Act, the Registered Designs Act, and the Patents Act. Patent rights in Finland are consistent with international standards, and a granted patent is valid for 20 years. The Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) website contains unofficial translations in English of the Patents Act, Patents Decree, and Patent Regulation. For more information: https://www.prh.fi/en/index.html  

The Finnish Trademarks Act was enacted in May 2019 to implement the revised EU Trademark Directive. The act includes provisions concerning collective marks and control marks. It includes amendments to related legislation such as the Finnish Company Names Act, the Criminal Code, and relevant procedural acts. Trademark applicants or proprietors not domiciled in Finland must have a representative resident in the European Economic Area. Finland is a party to the Madrid Protocol.

Finnish Customs supervises counterfeit products that are imported to, exported from, and transited via Finland and other products that violate IPR. Custom officers have the authority to seize and destroy counterfeit goods. Customs has intensified the control of counterfeit goods by conducting a risk analysis of postal traffic. The long-term trend indicates a decline in counterfeit goods detected in large-volume shipments: https://www.vero.fi/en/grey-economy-crime/prevention/preventionstatistics/  

Finland is a member of the World International Property Organization (WIPO) and party to a several other treaties, including the Berne Convention, the Paris Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the WIPO Copyright Treaty, the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, and the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations (Rome Convention). Finland is a party to the WTO’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

For additional information about national laws and points of contact at local IP offices, please see WIPO’s country profiles at: https://www.wipo.int/directory/en/details.jsp?country_code=FI  

6. Financial Sector

• Capital Markets and Portfolio Investment

Finland is open to foreign portfolio investment and has an effective regulatory system. Credit is allocated on market terms and made available to foreign investors non-discriminately, and private sector companies have access to various credit instruments. Legal, regulatory, and accounting systems are transparent and consistent with international norms.

The Helsinki Stock Exchange is part of OMX, referred to as NASDAQ OMX Helsinki (OMXH). NASDAQ OMX Helsinki is part of the NASDAQ OMX Nordic division, together with the Stockholm, Copenhagen, Iceland, and Baltic (Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius) stock exchanges.

Finland accepts the obligations under IMF Article VIII, Sections 2(a), 3, and 4 of the IMF Articles of Agreement. It maintains an exchange system free of restrictions on payments and transfers for current international transactions, except for those measures imposed for security reasons by the Regulations of the Council of the European Union.

• Money and Banking System

Finland has a resilient, digitally advanced, and well-capitalized banking sector characterized by cooperative banking and pan-Nordic groups. Banking is open to foreign competition, and the industry is one of Europe’s most prominent relative to the size of the national economy. Four significant banks (OP Financial Group, Nordea, Municipality Finance, and Danske Bank) dominate the banking sector, holding 80 percent of the market. The Bank of Finland is the national monetary authority and the central bank of Finland: https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en  

The Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) supervises Finland’s financial and insurance sectors, including banks, insurance and pension companies, other companies operating in the insurance sector, investment firms, fund management companies, and the Helsinki Stock Exchange: https://www.finanssivalvonta.fi/en/  

In 2023, the financial sector’s capital position remained strong despite the gloomier economic environment. Finland’s banks met the requirements for liquid bank holdings under Basel III standards, which compare a bank’s assets with its capital to see if the bank would withstand a financial crisis. The sector’s operating environment weakened as the Finnish economy slid into a recession. Despite increased credit risks in corporate and household loans, the Finnish banking sector’s non-performing loans and loan losses were still among the lowest in Europe.

Foreign companies and nationals can, in principle, open bank accounts in the same manner as Finnish nationals. However, banks must identify customers, and this may prove more difficult for foreign nationals. In addition to personal and address data, the bank often needs to know the person’s identifier code (i.e. social security number). Several banks require a work permit, a certificate of studies, a letter of recommendation from a trustworthy bank, and details regarding the nature of transactions to be made with the account. All authorized deposit-taking banks are members of the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which guarantees customers’ deposits to a maximum of EUR 100,000 ($109,000) per depositor.

The Act on Virtual Currency Providers (572/2019) entered into force in May 2019. FIN-FSA is the registration authority for virtual currency providers. The primary objective of the act is to introduce virtual currency providers into the scope of anti-money laundering regulation. Only virtual currency providers meeting statutory requirements can carry on their activities in Finland, and only a FIN-FSA registered virtual currency provider may market its currency and services in Finland. The Finnish Tax Administration released guidelines on the taxation of cryptocurrency, available here: https://www.vero.fi/en/detailed-guidance/guidance/48411/taxation-of-virtual-currencies3/  

Foreign Exchange and Remittances

• Foreign Exchange

Finland adopted the Euro as its official currency in January 1999. Finland maintains an exchange system free of restrictions on making payments and transfers for international transactions, except for those measures imposed for security reasons. Currency transfers are protected by Article VII of the IMF Articles of Agreement: http://www.imf.org/External/Pubs/FT/AA/index.htm#art7  

• Remittance Policies

There are no legal obstacles to direct foreign investment in Finnish securities or exchange controls regarding payments into and out of Finland. Banks must identify their customers and report suspected cases of money laundering or the financing of terrorism. Banks and credit institutions must also report single payments or transfers of EUR 15,000 ($16,000) or more. If the origin of funds is suspicious, banks must immediately inform the National Bureau of Investigation. There are no restrictions on current transfers or repatriation of profits. Residents and non-residents may hold foreign exchange accounts. There is no limit on dividend distributions as long as they correspond to a company’s official earnings records. Travelers carrying more than EUR 10,000 ($11,000) must make a declaration upon entering or leaving the EU.

• Sovereign Wealth Funds

Solidium is a holding company fully owned by the Finnish government. It is a minority owner of nationally listed companies operating in clusters significant to the national economy, such as the forest industry. Solidium’s ownership stake of these companies is usually over 10 percent but rarely exceeds 20 percent. According to Solidium’s investment strategy, future investments may include companies that seek to implement green transition strategies or solutions related to the platform economy. Solidium aims to strengthen and stabilize Finnish ownership in the companies and increase the value of their holdings. In 2023, Solidium paid the Finnish government approximately $374 million as a dividend. For more information: https://www.solidium.fi/en/  

7. State-Owned Enterprises

The government of Finland owns directly or through Solidium the shares of 15 listed companies on the Helsinki stock exchange. In general, State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) are open to competition except where they have a monopoly position, namely in alcohol retail and gambling. SOEs in Finland operate in chemicals, petrochemicals, plastics, and composites; energy and mining; environmental technologies; food processing and packaging; industrial equipment and supplies; marine technology; media and entertainment; metal manufacturing and products; services; and travel. The market value of all state direct shareholdings was approximately $24 billion as of March 2024. For more information, see: https://vnk.fi/en/government-ownership-steering/companies   https://vnk.fi/en/government-ownership-steering/value-of-state-holdings  

The Ownership Steering Department in the Prime Minister’s Office has ownership steering responsibility for Finnish SOEs, and is responsible for Solidium. The State Shareholdings and Ownership Steering Act (1368/2007) and the Act Amending the State Shareholdings and Ownership Steering Act (1315/2016) regulate the administration of state-owned companies. For more information, see: https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2007/en20071368   https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2016/20161315  

Finnish state ownership steering complies with the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. The Parliamentary Advisory Council in the Prime Minister’s Office serves in an advisory capacity regarding SOE policy; it does not make recommendations regarding any business in which the individual companies are engaged. The government has proposed changing its ownership levels in several companies and increasing the number of companies the Prime Minister’s Office steers. Parliament decides from which companies the state may relinquish its sole ownership (100 percent), its control of ownership (50.1 percent), or minority ownership (33.4 percent of votes). For more information: https://vnk.fi/en/government-ownership-steering/ownership-policy  

Finland opened domestic rail freight to competition in early 2007, and in July 2016, Fenniarail Oy, the first private rail operator on the Finnish market, began operations. In November 2020, Estonian-based Operail, which works in Finland’s rail freight operations, started a subsidiary in Finland as Operail Finland. In 2023, Operail Finland’s share was sold to Nurjminen Logistics. Passenger rail transport services will be opened to competition in stages, starting with local rail services in southern Finland. Based on an agreement between Finnish State Railways (VR) and the Ministry of Transport and Communications, VR has exclusive rights to provide passenger transport rail services in Finland until the end of 2030. For more information, see: https://lvm.fi/en/-/nine-year-contract-between-the-ministry-of-transport-and-communications-and-vr-for-purchasing-rail-transport-services-1643706  

The exclusive right applies to all passenger rail transport in Finland, excluding the commuter train transport services provided by the Helsinki Regional Transport Agency (HSL). In February 2020, HSL put its commuter train transport services out for tender; VR won the tender and will continue to provide passenger rail service for the next ten years. The value of southern Finland commuter train services is $67 million per year, with 200,000 daily passengers.

• Privatization Program

Parliament makes all decisions identifying the companies in which the state may relinquish sole ownership (100 percent of the votes) or control (minimum of 50.1 percent of the votes), while the government decides on the actual sale. The state has privatized companies by selling shares to Finnish and foreign institutional investors through both public offerings and directly to employees. Sales of the state’s direct holdings totaled $2.89 billion (2007 – 2018).

The government issued a new resolution on state-ownership policy in April 2020, seeking to maximize overall social and financial benefits; use corporate assets to promote domestic ownership; and diversify the economy, create innovations, and support sustainable structural change. For more information, visit https://vnk.fi/en/government-ownership-steering  

8. Responsible Business Conduct

Finland has long traditions in compliance with labor, occupational safety, health, and environmental legislation. Finnish companies recognize that their due diligence to comply with laws and regulations is central to responsible business conduct and corporate responsibility. The Finnish Business & Society (FIBS) is the largest corporate responsibility network in the Nordic countries and has more than 300 members: https://www.fibsry.fi/briefly-in-english/  

Finland is committed to implementing the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and the ILO’s tripartite declaration of principles concerning multinational enterprises and social policy. The government promotes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the Ministry of Employment and the Economy CSR Guidelines. or more information: https://tem.fi/en/key-guidelines-on-csr  

Finland ranks first in the UN’s Sustainable Development Report, which compares 193 UN member states based on 17 sustainability goals. Finland launched a new sustainable development strategy built around the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). More information is available here: https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/profiles/finland  

The Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on the disclosure of non-financial information has been implemented via amendments to the Finnish Accounting Act, requiring affected organizations to report on their CSR. The obligation to report non-financial information and corporate responsibility reports applies to significant public interest entities, i.e., listed companies, credit institutions, and insurance companies with more than 500 employees. In addition, turnover must be greater than $45.4 million, or the balance sheet must exceed more than $22.7 million. For more information: https://tem.fi/en/accounting  

Currently, there are no other mandatory human rights-related due diligence requirements apart from those set out in the Act on the Placing on the Market of Conflict Minerals and Their Ores (1196/2020) (the Conflict Minerals Act), which improved the transparency of supply chains and brought Finland’s conflict minerals regime into line with EU regulations. Businesses importing conflict minerals (tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold) from conflict-affected areas into the EU that exceed certain volume thresholds are subject to due diligence requirements. The Finnish Safety and Chemicals Agency and Finnish Customs are competent authorities in implementing the act. For more information: https://tukes.fi/en/industry/conflict-minerals  

Finland has joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which supports improved governance in resource-rich countries. Finland is not a member of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative. The Human Rights Center (HRC), administratively linked to the Office of the Parliamentary Ombudsman, encourages foreign and local enterprises to follow the most important international norms: https://www.humanrightscentre.fi/  

Finland participates in the Montreux Document on pertinent international legal obligations and good practices for states related to private military and security company operations during armed conflict. However, Finland is not a member of ICoCA, the International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers’ Association.

• Additional Resources

Department of State

• Country Reports on Human Rights Practices ;
• Trafficking in Persons Report ;
• Guidance on Implementing the “UN Guiding Principles” for Transactions Linked to Foreign Government End-Users for Products or Services with Surveillance Capabilities
• U.S. National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises ; and;
• Xinjiang Supply Chain Business Advisory 

Department of the Treasury

• OFAC Recent Actions

Department of Labor

• Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor Report ;
• List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor ;
• Sweat & Toil: Child Labor, Forced Labor, and Human Trafficking Around the World and;
• Comply Chain .

Finland participates in international climate negotiations as an EU member state. It is firmly committed to the EU’s joint reduction target under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. The core elements of EU climate policy are the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS); national targets for sectors excluded from EU ETS (effort sharing); and obligations concerning the Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry sector (LULUCF). The EU ETS covers more than 40 percent of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and just under half of the greenhouse gas emissions in Finland. For more information, see: https://tem.fi/en/emissions-trading  

The National Climate Act is another fundamental pillar of Finland’s climate policy. The act aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for 2030 (-60 percent), 2040 (-80 percent), and 2050 (-95 percent) compared to 1990 levels. According to the act, Finland must be carbon neutral by 2035. For more information, see: https://ym.fi/en/climate  

Finland reduces carbon emissions by increasing clean energy production, investing in the hydro economy, and augmenting the carbon sequestration of the industrial and land use sectors. Renewables have replaced imported fossil fuels in domestic electricity production. In 2023, the share of carbon-free electricity production was 94 percent. The primary energy sources of electricity production were nuclear power at 41 percent, hydropower at 18.8 percent, wind at 18.1 percent, and biomass at 13.3 percent, while the share of imported electricity was 2.2 percent.

In 2024, the government reserved EUR 14.1 million ($15.3 million) in national energy aid to promote the production of renewable energy, renewable hydrogen and hydrogen-refined fuels, energy saving or more efficient energy production or use, utilization of waste heat, and the transition towards a low-carbon energy system. The government will prioritize investment projects promoting new technology, its commercialization, and the capacity of the electricity system. In addition, REPowerEU aid supports investments in new energy technology and the production and storage of renewable hydrogen, funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility. REPowerEU aims to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels by fast forwarding the clean transition and joining forces to achieve a more resilient energy system and a true Energy Union. For more information, see: https://tem.fi/en/-/ministry-of-economic-affairs-and-employment-sets-energy-aid-priorities-for-2024  

The Finnish Climate Fund is a state-owned company that focuses on combating climate change, boosting the low-carbon industry, and promoting digitalization. Companies targeted by the fund typically receive the funding in installments over several years when meeting conditions specified in the financing agreements. For more information, see: https://www.ilmastorahasto.fi/en/  

The National Forest Strategy contains the critical outlines of Finland’s forest policy. For more information, see: https://mmm.fi/en/forests/strategies-and-programmes  

Finland also aims to increase ecological public procurement. Finland’s first National Public Procurement Strategy, launched in September 2020, focuses on developing strategic management and promoting procurement expertise. For more information, see: https://vm.fi/en/-/national-public-procurement-strategy-identifies-concrete-ways-in-which-public-procurement-can-help-achieve-wider-goals-in-society  

On MIT’s Green Future Index 2023, Finland ranked second among 76 leading countries and territories. The index measures progress and commitment towards building a low-carbon future. According to the index, Finland fosters an extensive green tech R&D ecosystem with leading-edge renewables and food tech.

9. Corruption

Corruption in Finland is covered by the criminal code and penalties range from fines to imprisonment of up to four years. The bribery offenses criminalized in the criminal code are electoral bribery, bribery violation, the giving of bribes, the acceptance of a bribe, providing bribes to a Member of Parliament, accepting a bribe as a Member of Parliament, giving of bribes in a business transaction, and accepting a bribe in a business transaction. For more information, see: https://korruptiontorjunta.fi/en/national-legislation  

Finland does not have an authority specifically charged to prevent corruption. Instead, several authorities and agencies contribute to anti-corruption work. The Ministry of Justice coordinates anti-corruption matters, but Finland’s EU anti-corruption contact is the Ministry of the Interior. The National Bureau of Investigation also monitors corruption, while the tax administration has guidelines obliging tax officials to report suspected offenses, including foreign bribery, and the Ministry of Finance has guidelines on hospitality, benefits, and gifts. The Ministry of Justice describes its anti-corruption efforts at https://oikeusministerio.fi/en/anti-corruption-activities.

The EU Directive on non-financial reporting supports action against corruption. Implementation of the EU Directive in Finland led to the amendment of the Accounting Act in December 2016. Current legislation imposes obligations on large companies to report on anti-bribery and anti-corruption action policies.

The Ministry of Justice is responsible for monitoring and developing the Transparency Register legislation. The Transparency Register Guide contains a general description, key concepts, related procedures, and published actors. The guide answers questions such as who is subject to the obligation to provide information to the Transparency Register, what kind of information must be provided to the register and when, and how the Transparency Register is monitored. The guide is available in Finnish, Swedish, and English: https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/164813  

In 2020, the Ministry of Employment and Economy released an anti-corruption guide intended for companies, especially SMEs, to provide them with guidance and support for promoting sound business practices and corruption-free business relations both in Finland and abroad. Large companies must publish corporate responsibility reports. These reports must briefly describe their business model, explain the risks related to their policies, and describe how they manage these risks. The reporting obligation applies to public interest entities with over 500 employees and a turnover of over 40 million euros ($43 million) or an annual balance sheet of over 20 million euros ($22 million). Smaller companies can report voluntarily. The report can be part of yearly reports or reports on corporate social responsibility. For more information: https://tem.fi/en/-/guide-offers-smes-practical-anti-corruption-tips  

Finland has ratified the following anti-corruption conventions: the Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure, and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime; the Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption; the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption; and the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Finland has become the 32nd country to sign the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) Coalition’s Transparency Pledge, voluntarily committing to a high level of transparency and civil society inclusion in the second cycle of the UNCAC implementation review. Finland is a member of the European Partners against Corruption (EPAC).

Finland is a signatory to the OECD Convention on Anti-Bribery. In October 2020, the OECD working group on bribery said it recognizes Finland’s commitment to combat corruption but is concerned about lack of foreign bribery enforcement. For more information: https://www.oecd.org/daf/anti-bribery/finland-oecdanti-briberyconvention.htm  

• Resources to Report Corruption

Jaakko Christensen Head of Financial Crime Division National Board of Investigation P.O. Box 285, 01310 Vantaa, Finland [email protected]

Jaakko Korhonen Chairperson Transparency Finland [email protected]

• 10. Political and Security Environment

Finland acceded to NATO in April 2023 and signed a bilateral Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United States in December 2023. The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO) estimated in the National Security Overview 2023, the most current version released, that Russia’s actions remain the greatest threat to Finland’s national security, with Russia treating Finland as an unfriendly state, and as a target for espionage and malign influence activities. According to SUPO, NATO membership protects Finland from Russia’s measures. SUPO assesses Russia’s use of irregular migration as a way for Russia to indicate its dissatisfaction with Finland’s NATO membership and generally sow the consequences of actions Russia perceives as unfriendly.

SUOP assesses that no significant changes have occurred in the threat of terrorism faced by Finland. The threat of terrorism in Finland remains at level 2, ‘Elevated’, on the four-tier scale. There are probably far-right and radical Islamist operators in Finland with the desire and capacity to carry out violent attacks. Supporters of these ideologies pose the most likely threat, either as individuals or in small groups. Attacks remain unlikely in the short term. .For more information, see: https://supo.fi/en/terrorism-overview  

While instances of political violence in Finland are rare, extremism exists, and anti-immigration and anti-Semitic incidents do occur. The Central Council of Finnish Jewish Communities has noted a rise in anti-Semitism in Finland over the past two decades, with reported instances likely underestimating the prevalence of such cases. Targeted acts of vandalism against the synagogue and property of the Israeli Embassy and random acts of vandalism featuring anti-Semitic language and images have become more common. Hate groups and far-right political parties use anti-Semitic language and Nazi iconography in both online publications and public events. SUPO considers Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremism (REMVE) online platforms a significant source of radicalization in Finland, and Jewish and Muslim community leaders have identified these websites as contributors to increases in public anti-Semitism.

In 2022, The Ministry of the Interior published the National Counterterrorism Strategy 2022–2025 to guide national and international counterterrorism activities. Finland combats terrorism, violent radicalization, and extremism to safeguard national interests and foster the safety and security of the country and its population. The Ministry of the Interior monitors the achievement of objectives and will prepare an interim report in 2024. For more information, see: https://intermin.fi/en/publication?pubid=URN:ISBN:978-952-324-578-5  

• 11. Labor Policies and Practices

According to Statistics Finland, the population was approximately 5.6 million, and the average number of employed persons aged 15 to 74 was 2,628,000 in 2023. The number of unemployed persons was 204,000. Men’s unemployment rate was 7.9 percent, while women’s unemployment rate was 6.5 percent. In January 2024, the number of unfilled vacancies was 133,400. The working-age population will decrease in the years to come due to an increasing retirement rate caused by Finland’s aging population. At the same time, the number of immigrants is growing, and people are working to a later age in life. In Finland, most job vacancies advertised are in the social healthcare services sector, the construction industry, and the service and retail sectors.

Finland has a long tradition of trade unions. The country has a 60 percent unionization rate, and approximately 90 percent of employees have participated in the collective bargaining system. Extensive tripartite cooperation between the government, employers’ groups, and trade unions characterizes the labor market system in Finland. Trade unions and employers’ associations may make collective agreements, and the ministry decides on the agreements’ validity, determining minimum wages, working hours, and working conditions. The Ministry of Employment and the Economy is responsible for drafting labor legislation, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is responsible for enforcing labor laws and regulations via the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) authorities of the OSH Divisions at the Regional State Administrative Agencies, which operate under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.

To increase the labor market’s flexibility, the government of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo aims to reform the labor market legislation in 2024. As part of the proposed reforms, the government intends to increase local bargaining, which refers to workplace-level agreements on working hours, annual holidays, or wages; tie all sectors’ wage increases to export industry levels; restrict the right to political strikes, including limiting political strikes to 24 hours; and cut social welfare and benefits programs, including unemployment benefits. The government’s proposed labor reforms launched a wave of political strikes in Finland.

In the March 2024 IMF Article IV consultation with Finland, the IMF commended the government’s efforts to boost employment through social benefit reforms, greater flexibility in the labor market, and lowering the labor tax wedge. According to the IMF, the government should establish robust systems to monitor the impact of these reforms on employment closely. Additionally, government policies and procedures should aim to improve higher education, lower skill mismatches, and more effectively attract and integrate international talent.

Finland adheres to most ILO conventions; and enforcement of worker rights is effective. Freedom of association and collective bargaining are guaranteed by law, providing the right to form and join independent unions, conduct legal strikes, and bargain collectively. The law prohibits anti-union discrimination and any obstruction of these rights. The National Conciliator under the Ministry of Employment and the Economy assists negotiating partners with labor disputes. The arbitration system is based on the Act on Mediation in Labor Disputes, and the Labor Court is the highest body for settlement. The ILO’s Finland Country profile can be found here: http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=1000:11110:0::NO:11110:P11110_COUNTRY_ID:102625  

• 12. U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and Other Investment Insurance or Development Finance Programs

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, DFC, does not operate in Finland.

• 13. Foreign Direct Investment Statistics

* Source for Host Country Data: Statistics Finland

• 14. Contact for More Information

[email protected]  

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