Stability and Security in the Baltic Sea Region


Book Description

The book examines the security puzzles posed by the remaining legacies of dominance and conflict in the Baltic Sea region as governments seek to integrate the three Baltic sates in a more stable system of cooperative security.




Go North!


Book Description

HauptbeschreibungGo North was the programmatic title of an international conference on Baltic Sea Region Studies that took place at Humboldt University of Berlin from April 4-6, 2005. It was hosted by the BalticStudyNet project, which is part of the European Union's Erasmus Mundus programme for the global promotion of European higher education. In order to discuss the past, present and future of Baltic Sea Region Studies, the Berlin conference brought together about fifty government representatives and scholars from all Baltic Sea Region countries, including Russia, as well as from the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan. The basic idea of the Go North conference was to encourage a fundamental change of perspective - away from intra-regional and towards extra-regional and truly global approaches to the Baltic Sea Region: How is the Baltic Sea region perceived when viewed, let's say, from Australia? What, if anything, would a Chinese student find typical, extraordinary, or even unique when looking at the region? Why should a scholar from Mexico, South Africa or India wish to do research in and/or about the Baltic Sea Region? Consequently, third country views on Europe's North and the Baltic Sea Region were a feature of many of the presentations and panel discussions during the conference, which are documented in this volume.




Security-Political Environment of the Baltic Sea Region


Book Description

Countries in Baltic Sea the region represent all combinations of political approaches to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, democracy, and a market economy. The region, hence, is a focal point and testing ground of problems and challenges for Europe to face in the 21st century as a whole. The success or failure of this region depends on the adequacy of foreign policy of each country in this key area. A comprehensive analysis of key elements of foreign and security policy of ten countries in the region suggests that Estonia's foreign policy generally accords with the foreign policies of other countries in the region. Two minor disagreements concern the conditions of enlargement of the Alliance-with Finland-and policy towards Russia-with Germany. Discrepancies between the foreign policies of Estonia and Russia are fundamental. However, there is also some common ground. Taking into account the above-mentioned discrepancies, Estonia should continue to pursue its present course of policy and strategy.




The Baltic Sea Region


Book Description




High-table Diplomacy


Book Description

In this groundbreaking work, Kjell Engelbrekt contrasts therelatively informal minilateral summits with the more formal UN Security Council to provide an authoritative assessment of their relative effectiveness, compatibility, and their impact on international security institutions.







Security in Northern Europe


Book Description

NATO’s Northern members are increasingly concerned about Russia’s military activities. This Whitehall Paper contains perspectives from prominent authors across the region, showing how member states are responding, individually and collectively, to Moscow’s resurgence. Overall, it identifies the common but differentiated responsibility that member states have for security in the Alliance’s northern regions.




Poland and Germany in the European Union


Book Description

This book explores the political and social dynamics of the bilateral relations between Germany and Poland at the national and subnational levels, taking into account the supranational dynamics, across such different policy areas as trade, foreign and security policy, energy, fiscal issues, health and social policy, migration and local governance. By studying the impact of the three explanatory categories – the historical legacy, interdependence and asymmetry – on the bilateral relationship, the book explores the patterns of cooperation and identifies the driving forces and hindering factors of the bilateral relationship. Covering the Polish–German relationship since 2004, it demonstrates, in a systematic way, that it does not qualify as embedded bilateralism. The relationship remains historically burdened and asymmetric, and thus it is not resilient to crises. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European and EU Politics, German politics, East/Central European Politics, borderlands studies, and more broadly, for international relations, history and sociology.




Baltic Security Strategy Report


Book Description

The Baltic Security Strategy Report provides an indepth security review of the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. As highlighted in this important work, the Baltic States' various national and collective strategies to address recurring regional threats since achieving statehood over a hundred years ago present notable case studies useful to contemporary policymakers and defense planners. Scholars Olevs Nikers and Otto Tabuns based this report on a series of discussions and workshops involving key European and American experts and stakeholders engaged in Baltic regional security matters. The participating experts assessed current challenges pertaining to defense and deterrence, societal security, economic security and cyber security. In addition to exploring the security considerations of each of the three Baltic States, the workshop discussions and resulting papers collected in this report specifically examine avenues of subregional cooperation that may prove more potent than individual national effort in certain fields. Consequently, the authors provide a detailed list of recommendations on how to proceed with a more coherent, goaloriented, and efficient regional cooperation strategy that serves to buttress the security of each of the Baltic States and the Transatlantic community more broadly. The report is a rich guide to issues and opportunities of Baltic intraregional security, and a valuable resource for policymakers, advisors, scholars and defensesector professionals on both sides of the Atlantic.