1st Edition

Security Strategies, Power Disparity and Identity The Baltic Sea Region

Edited By Olav F. Knudsen Copyright 2007
    238 Pages
    by Routledge

    238 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Contents: An overall perspective on regional power strategies, Olav F. Knudsen; Power disparities and the avoidance of confrontation, Olav F. Knudsen; Events and ideas in the region: an overview 1980s-2000s, Olav F. Knudsen and Christopher Jones; The conditionality of security integration: identity and alignment choices in Finland and Sweden, Regina Karp; Power disparity and epistemic communities: the Paldiski case, Michael Karlsson; Threat images and socialization: Estonia and Russia in the new millennium, Erik Noreen; Power disparity in the digital age, Johan Eriksson; Generalizing about security strategies in the Baltic Sea region, Stephen G. Walker; Looking to the future: security strategies, identity and power disparity, Olav F. Knudsen; References; Index.

    Biography

    Olav F. Knudsen