The Baltic Sea Region

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.

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.

This anthology provides an in-depth introduction to the networks shaped by the Baltic Sea, the languages, folklore, religions, literature, technology, and identities of the Germanic, Finnic, Sámi, Baltic, and Slavic peoples.

This book analyses the potential for active stakeholder engagement in the energy transition in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) in order to foster clean energy deployment. Public acceptability and bottom-up activities can be critical for enduring outcomes to an energy transition. As a result, it is vital to understand how to unlock the potential for public, community and prosumer participation to facilitate renewable energy deployment and a clean energy transition – and, consequently, to examine the factors influencing social acceptability. Focussing on the diverse BSR, this book draws on expert contributions to consider a range of different topics, including the challenges of social acceptance and its policy implications; strategies to address challenges of acceptability among stakeholders; and community engagement in clean energy production. Overall, the authors examine the practical implications of current policy measures and provide recommendations on how lessons learnt from this ‘energy lab region’ may be applied to other regions. Reflecting an interdisciplinary approach in the social sciences, this book is an essential resource for scholars, students and policymakers researching and working in the areas of renewable energy, energy policy and citizen engagement, and interested in understanding the potential for bottom-up, grassroots activities and social acceptability to expedite the energy transition and reanimate democracies. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

In Visual Culture and Politics in the Baltic Sea Region, Kersti Markus examines how visual rhetoric was used by the Danish rulers as an instrument in establishing supremacy in the region during the Baltic crusades.

Jervell, S.: A report from Europe's northern periphery. - S.11-25. Waever, O.: The Baltic Sea region - Does it exist? - S.26-38. Joenniemi, P.: Baltic-Nordic relations: Prospects for future. - S.39-61. Neumann, I. B.: From the Nordic region to what? - S.62-73. Jonson, L.: Russia in the Nordic region in the period of change. - S.77-106. Vozgrin, V.: Sankt-Petersburg as Russia's northern capital. - S.107-119. Cheredeev, S.: Economic development and reforms in the Russian Arctic under transition to market economy. - S.120-129. Vares, P. ; Zhurjari, O.: The foreign policy on the Baltic states. - S.133-141. Kukk, M.: Estonia in transition - Reform or restitution? - S.144-157. Puga, A.: Latvia: realities of the return to Europe. - S.158-172. Antanavicius, K.: The Lithuanian economy: its present condition and the necessary steps for its recovery. - S.173-179. Gricius, A.: How far is Lithuania from Scandinavian countries and contemporary Europe? - S.180-196. Vilkas, E.: Lithuania - interlink of West Europe and Russia. - S.197-206. Tunander, O.: The strategic significance of the Nordic-Baltic region. - S.211-229. Visuri, P.: The changing political and military status of the Baltic region. - S.230-238.