1st Edition

Northern Security and Global Politics Nordic-Baltic strategic influence in a post-unipolar world

Edited By Ann-Sofie Dahl, Pauli Järvenpää Copyright 2014

    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.

    Introduction, Editors  PART I: FROM UNIPOLAR TO POST_UNIPOLAR: THE US, RUSSIA, AND THE NORDIC-BALTIC REGION  1. American Power in a Post-Unipolar World, Robert Lieber  2. The West and Russia: The Challenge of Starting Anew, Christopher Coker  3. An American Security Strategy for the Arctic, Heather C. Conley  4. Russia’s Energy Policies: The Challenge to Baltic Security, Keith C. Smith  5. A Role for NATO in the Arctic?, Heather A. Conley  PART II: STRATEGIES IN THE NORTH: NORDIC-BALTIC PERSPECTIVES  6.  Security in the Nordic-Baltic Region: From Cold War to a Unipolar World, Ann-Sofie Dahl  7. Birds of a Feather Flying Apart? Explaining Nordic Dissonance in the (Post)-Unipolar World, Anders Wivel  8. Nordic-Baltic Security and Defence Cooperation – The Norwegian Perspective, Paal Sigurd Hilde  9. NATO in the Nordic-Baltic region: Focus on the Baltic Allies and Article 5, Karoliina Honkanen  10. Sweden, Finland and NATO: Security Partners and Security Producers, Ann-Sofie Dahl with Pauli Järvenpää  11. Nordic Defence Cooperation: NORDEFCO and Beyond, Pauli Järvenpää  12. Towards Nordic-Baltic Defence Cooperation. A View From Estonia, Sven Sakkov

    Biography

    Ann-Sofie Dahl is Associate Professor of International Relations, and an Adjunct Fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.

    Pauli Järvenpää is currently the Finnish Ambassador to Afghanistan. He holds a PhD in International Relations from Cornell University.