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.




Security Strategies, Power Disparity and Identity


Book Description

What is power and how is it effective? This volume responds to these questions in terms of regional international relations with a particular focus on the Baltic Sea region, an area still charged with a residue of Cold War conflict and power disparity, in a setting of new cooperative ventures. Each contributor examines the region from a different angle and discusses how its actors coped with the new situation facing them after 1991. The volume looks at how governments have defined their new circumstances, how they have dealt with the opportunity to shift to a new mode of coexistence and collaboration, and how they have tackled the challenge of peacefully converting their region to a security community. The book breaks with tradition by adopting a new, thematic approach based on regional issues and functions rather than a country-by-country discourse. It will be of critical value to readers interested in security studies and European politics.




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.




Comprehensive Security for the Baltic


Book Description

Comprehensive Security for the Baltic explores the extent to which regional cooperation on environmental protection and natural-resource utilization serves as a confidence-building measure that fosters comprehensive international security. The contributors first provide an overview of the concept of regional political security and the extent to which environmental security might contribute to the former. They then give a detailed overview of the Baltic, examining the formal mechanisms and organizations for regional environmental cooperation, and formulating the means for building regional confidence. Finally they consider the extent to which regional security contributes to a sustainable future, not only at the regio




Borders in the Baltic Sea Region


Book Description

This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely examine the following issues: new security challenges for the region stemming from Russia’s staunch anti-EU and anti-NATO polices, institutions and practices of multi-level governance in the region, and different cultural strategies that regional actors employ. The common threads of this innovative volume are issues of changing borders and boundaries in the region, and logics of inclusion and exclusion that shape its political contours. From diverse disciplinary and methodological positions the authors explain policies of specific Baltic Sea states, as well as structural matters that make them a region.




Northern Security and Global Politics


Book Description

This book takes a comprehensive approach to security in the Nordic-Baltic region, studying how this region is affected by developments in the international system. The advent of the new millennium coincided with the return of the High North to the world stage. A number of factors have contributed to the increased international interest for the northern part of Europe: climate change resulting in ice melting in Greenland and the Arctic, and new resources and shipping routes opening up across the polar basin foremost among them. The world is no longer "unipolar" and not yet "multipolar," but perhaps "post-unipolar", indicating a period of flux and of declining US unipolar hegemony. Drawing together contributions from key thinkers in the field, Northern Security and Global Politics explores how this situation has affected the Nordic-Baltic area by addressing two broad sets of questions. First, it examines what impact declining unipolarity - with a geopolitical shift to Asia, a reduced role for Europe in United States policy, and a more assertive Russia - will have on regional Nordic-Baltic security. Second, it takes a closer look at how the regional actors respond to these changes in their strategic environment. This book will be of much interest to students of Nordic and Baltic politics, international security, foreign policy and IR.




The Baltic Sea Region


Book Description




The Baltic Security Puzzle


Book Description

International experts assess the components of the Baltic security puzzle by placing the security and political interests of the states of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania within the historical, economic, and political narratives of the greater Baltic region. They first reevaluate Baltic history as a progression of conflict, partial integration, Cold War division, up to today’s efforts to build a security community. Next, they focus on economic and social relations by contrasting patterns of democratization, domestic politics, EU membership, and the economics of crime. Lastly, they analyze military security and evolving regional perceptions of threats as well as the dynamics of alliance behavior and the recent geostrategic clashes unearthed by Russia’s behavior in Ukraine.




Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region


Book Description

Generates new concepts of economic, military and environmental security for the Baltic and discusses a future agenda for the region with ideas for policies which are needed but which, in many cases, do not exist.




The Baltic Sea


Book Description

Recent developments have produced fundamental and far-reaching changes in the sovereignties bordering the semi-enclosed area of the Baltic Sea. This book presents a comprehensive and balanced codification of issues and views, focusing on new developments in the Baltic Sea Area with specific reference to the UNCLOS 1982 Convention, the particular marine uses of the Baltic Sea, and national views and interests of the bordering states and third parties. It deals with matters such as the Kiel Canal, delimitation, dispute settlement and navigation, shipping, the ecosystem, fisheries, and scientific research. "The Baltic Sea" is the outcome of a European Workshop on the Law of the Sea co-sponsored by the Law of the Sea Institute (University of Hawaii), the William S. Richardson School of Law (University of Hawaii) and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (Research Institute for International Affairs) in Ebenhausen (Germany). This workshop is the first in a series designed to illuminate major issues in ocean law and policy which require attention on the national, regional, and global levels. This book provides a useful basis for the consideration and further discussion of those interested in the sea and the environment, helping academics and policy-makers alike not only ascertain but also understand objectives and concerns underlying the states of the region and the reaction of other states and the international community as a whole.