James Ford Cooper – Finlandia Foundation Lecturer of the year – will present a lecture titled “Finland and the Cold War”, in which he discusses the different perspectives and geopolitical and historical factors that informed the manners in which Finland and the U.S. related to the 45-year period from the end of World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union. James Ford Cooper spent a long career in the U.S. Foreign Service, with two postings at the American Embassy in Helsinki during the Cold War: from 1976-79 as Political Counselor and 1984-86 as Deputy Chief of Mission. His memoir of his life and work in Finland, On The Finland Watch (1999), is based on those years of observation and analysis.