Alexander Stubb is the president of Finland and one of Ukraine's staunchest supporters. He studied as an undergraduate in South Carolina, initially on a golf scholarship, which left him both a devoted Atlanticist and a devotee of European integration—a rare combination. He was first elected to the European Parliament, where he stood out for his brains, ambition and talent for self-promotion, including a regular column in Finnair's in-flight magazine adorned with photographs of himself doing push-ups, practising his golf swing or tossing autumn leaves. He went on to serve as Finland's foreign minister and then prime minister before becoming president. He is an expert golfer and dauntingly fit, once coming second for his age group after secretly entering a Finnish triathlon.
Donald Trump is a texting buddy who has hailed Stubb for his golfing skills and "powerful" good looks. His father was born in the territory annexed by the Soviet Union after the Winter War, and his summer house stands in Porkkala, the naval base Russia leased from Finland in 1944 and returned in the 1950s.
In 2026 Stubb published "The Triangle of Power, Rebalancing the New World Order", a book-length manifesto proposing a new international order to accommodate three competing blocs: a Global West of liberal democracies led by America, a Global East of autocracies led by China and Russia, and a Global South of countries weary of being lectured by rich-world powers. He argues the Global South holds the global balance of power and should be given seats at the top tables of global governance. He would double the United Nations Security Council's five permanent members to ten while ending single-nation vetoes, and emphasises trade over aid. Finland, he notes, never had colonies, which may make it easier than some Western powers to earn a hearing.
Stubb has met Vladimir Putin, whom he calls "well-prepared, analytical, strategic and composed"—while insisting that Putin's imperial ambitions make it folly to trust him. Three meetings with Xi Jinping have left him oddly confident that China's leaders lack the history-fuelled revisionist zeal of Russia's rulers.
In April 2026, when asked about security guarantees for Ukraine, Stubb argued that the tide had turned: "We Europeans have to understand we need Ukraine more than Ukraine needs us." He cited Ukraine's 800,000 men at arms and its home-grown, AI-guided drone and counter-drone technologies as indispensable for any credible defence of Europe.
Stubb was included in a meeting at the White House in August 2025 between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and six other European leaders. Finland earned its seat at the table by being a model of military self-reliance, with well-trained armed forces guarding its 1,340km border with Russia. Stubb argued that Finland's 1944 settlement, widely seen as a defeat, was in fact a success: "We still feel we won, because we retained our independence." He has drawn parallels between Finland's experience and Ukraine's situation, arguing that Ukraine is in a better position than Finland was in 1944—which he described as "a devastated, dirt-poor country" with almost no outside support.
Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits.