The Role of Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) in Finland's Foreign and Security Policy

In the 2000s, the Finnish Government emphasized the need to enhance cooperation between military and civilian crisis management and development cooperation and humanitarian aid. In this paper, I will analyze the role of Faith-based organizations (FBOs) in crisis management policy. I examine the differences between the so-called mission-based and humanitarian-based FBOs that are involved in development cooperation projects. I will outline my research of advocacy work, which aims to address a gap in knowledge of how FBOs that work in fragile states make use of their expertise in Finland. This paper analyzes the dialogue between FBOs/NGOs and the Finnish political system. The data was gathered by qualitative methods. The study is based on the theme interviews and public documents of FBOs. Moreover, I use documents of the Finnish Government and Parliament. The study is theory-bounded where the logic of abductive reasoning is used.