Description of the video:

0:00 my name is Nicholas Deem I'm a Central
0:03 Eurasian Studies student and the Hamilton
0:05 Luger School of International Studies
0:06 I'm currently in the Indiana
0:08 International Guard for my career I've
0:09 been there for six years now and I plan
0:11 on staying there
0:12 I decided to switch to central region
0:14 studies here at IU mostly because I
0:16 really want to learn the Finnish
0:17 language you know I sat down on my
0:19 computer I Googled it not a whole lot of
0:21 tutors in my area teaching Finnish and
0:23 honestly there's not a whole lot of
0:24 universities that teach Finnish and when
0:26 I looked it up I saw it was part of the
0:27 Seuss Department central region studies
0:29 oh that's like area studies of very
0:31 unique countries and languages and I
0:33 just I knew it was me right away and I
0:35 had to dive in and I applied and got
0:37 accepted as a transfer student and now
0:38 here I am
0:40 the types of courses I took in the Seuss
0:42 Department are primarily language and
0:44 then moving on from there there's a lot
0:46 of exploratory classes I'm studying
0:48 Finland so I took the intro course for
0:50 Finland Hungary and Estonia to kind of
0:52 learn about their peoples and their
0:53 backgrounds and their histories but as
0:55 well I have taken many different Central
0:57 Asian classes as well Central Asia and
0:59 Soviet times being one of them this
1:01 semester I've taken but I'm also learned
1:03 by these other unique and great
1:04 societies and peoples and it's just
1:06 totally fascinating all the different
1:07 opportunities to learn about here
1:10 so my view on the usefulness of Asus
1:12 degree
1:13 I see it as very valuable if you're
1:15 interested in foreign policy if you're
1:17 interested in federal positions
1:18 absolutely this is the career for you
1:20 even for me being in cyber security I've
1:22 learned a foreign language so now if I
1:24 ever find myself in a position where I
1:25 want to partner with my foreign country
1:27 of choice which I picked Finland but it
1:29 could be any country I could I could
1:31 have learned Persian in which case
1:32 that'd be great for Iranian cyber
1:33 security threats you want to know that
1:35 language you want to have these
1:36 languages in any career that's going to
1:38 be dealing with any kind of threats and
1:41 or diplomacy however you look at it
1:43 whether you want to look at the pros of
1:44 being friendly with Nations we're going
1:45 to look at the cons of being hostile
1:47 foreign languages can really multiply
1:49 your usefulness in any kind of
1:51 diplomatic or economic role
1:54 as a senior ensues I'm currently working
1:56 on My Capstone paper which incorporates
1:57 all the research methods that I've been
1:59 taught throughout my academic career
2:01 here at IU as well as utilizing my
2:03 finished language skills that I have
2:04 picked up
2:06 my research has focused on Finnish Cold
2:08 War diplomacy because I had the question
2:10 of why aren't they in NATO why aren't
2:12 they in it today why didn't they
2:13 enjoying it two decades ago and to
2:15 answer this I had to go back to their
2:16 history
2:17 in World War II they were a democratic
2:19 capitalist country so I had naturally
2:20 and naively assumed they were part of
2:22 the Allies but in fact they were not
2:24 they were actually copeligerent in the
2:26 war against the Soviet Union and that
2:28 played into their diplomacy today and
2:31 once I learned about that and I learned
2:32 about how in the Cold War era they
2:34 negotiated with the Soviet Union from a
2:36 position opposition of weakness because
2:38 they were defeated by the Soviet Army
2:40 and they instead of becoming a Soviet
2:42 satellite state they decided to leverage
2:44 their diplomacy to create a treaty that
2:49 allowed them to coexist with the Soviet
2:51 Union based on economic ties and expense
2:54 for their autonomy at home and their
2:56 politics
2:57 and so learning on that building on that
2:59 I've really learned that their
3:00 presidents uh passiviki and kakonen were
3:03 phenomenal at playing The Diplomatic
3:06 roles and we can see that as in the end
3:08 of the Cold War and even today there are
3:10 many Helsinki meetings between East and
3:12 West between American presidents and
3:13 Soviet presidents or premiers and it's
3:17 been uh Testament to their diplomatic
3:19 skills and that is what my paper is
3:21 about
3:22 my research paper on finland's
3:24 neutrality position plays into today's
3:25 news constantly every week There's a new
3:28 article about Finland inching closer to
3:29 Nato potentially the Sweden joining as
3:31 well and to understand why this process
3:35 is beginning now is fundamental to what
3:37 my research paper is questioning
3:40 what we have seen or what I have seen in
3:43 my theory is that Finland who has always
3:45 used a more logical approach to their
3:47 relations with the Soviet Union as well
3:49 as modern-day Russia it was always based
3:51 on logic and economic ties today what we
3:53 have seen with the events in Ukraine
3:55 that that equation has been upended what
3:59 worked for Finland saying we're going to
4:00 have these economic ties we're going to
4:02 be friendly we may not agree on
4:03 everything but we're going to coexist
4:05 they have now felt that it is in their
4:07 interest to inch closer to Nato I
4:09 believe that they will eventually become
4:10 a full member however it remains to be
4:12 seen But every every week There's a new
4:14 article about it and a lot of
4:15 speculation so I I foresee him joining
4:19 my personal investment into the Hamilton
4:20 Luger School of International Studies
4:22 has been definitely worth it
4:24 I will be able to use my degree here and
4:26 put it into my federal career that I
4:28 want to get into I want to try and get
4:29 into Hands-On diplomacy it's a very
4:31 competitive field you're going to go to
4:33 a very unique school for that and hls
4:35 offers that for you I'll be able to use
4:37 this in my government career that I've
4:39 been off on and off again in National
4:41 Guard side I'll be able to use this and
4:43 potentially commission I'll be able to
4:44 use this and potentially get into
4:46 diplomacy roles and intelligence rules I
4:48 have a lot of Pathways ahead of me I'm
4:49 gonna have to kind of figure that on my
4:51 own but I would not have any of those
4:52 options without HLS.