Security communities in the Baltic sea region: real and imagined

• straipsnio tekstas

ENThis article will be divided into a before and an after – that is, before and after the great European turbulence of 1989–91, which in cluded the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East European revolutions and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Before that period, the Nordic balance and a the Nordic security community were the main components of the North European power structure. Afterwards, the Nordic balance had been replaced by a pattern of parallel action, though the Nordic security community re mained. At issue was whether that community could ‘cross’ the Baltic Sea and include its eastern shore – perhaps even Russia. In order to shed light on this issue, we should first focus on the self-reinforcing process of a security com munity and how to start it and, second, on the historical issue of how the Nordic security community got started. These two questions will be at the core of this article, together with the Nordic and EU security communities’ possible crossing of the Baltic Sea during the years ahead. In particular, the article will examine whether Baltic–Russian relations should be modelled after the Nordic or the EU paradigm for building a security community.

• Istorija / History
• Politikos mokslai / Political sciences