The Alliance That Refused to Collapse

Stubb’s diplomacy, Merz’s grind, and a Europe finally learning to raise the cost for Moscow.

Woke up to this picture of Finland’s President Alexander Stubb, captioned: “Good call with President Zelensky from Washington D.C.”

I like politicians who actually understand politics — who can live with contradiction, be ready to look good and bad on the same day, and still somehow move things forward for humanity. The job sadly doesn’t reward purity; it rewards propulsion. Most who try to stay perfectly correct end up stuck in place, paralyzed by their own virtue. Stubb isn’t one of them. He can wade through the moral mud without losing direction — and that’s what makes him rare. Very few reach that end.

The 57-year-old, with a doctorate in international relations from the London School of Economics, became Finland’s president in March 2024 — exactly one year and twenty days later, he managed to get U.S. President Donald Trump to push and secure a ceasefire from Vladimir Putin.

It barely lasted seventy-two hours, but that’s not the point. Stubb had pitched the idea to Trump a month earlier, during a golf session, and it worked. If you’ve noticed, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte bends over backward to please Trump. Stubb doesn’t. He holds the line —…