Challenges in the Baltic Sea region: geopolitics, insecurity and identity

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the changing security environment in the Baltic Sea region and reviews the patterns of cooperation and conflict since the end of the Cold War. The exploration starts from the concerns voiced by analysts since 2014 that the Baltic Sea could become the scene for a military confrontation with Russia. The article reviews the scholarly debates and examines the insights gained from past developments in the region. It underlines the utility of cooperation to address emerging security challenges and highlights the drivers of insecurity and threat perceptions, revealing the importance of changes in the sense of identity and belonging across the region. The article situates the contributions to the Forum: The Return of Geopolitics to the Baltic Sea Region in the context of the lessons that can be drawn from the shifts and changes that have taken place in the region in the last three decades.

KEYWORDS:

• Baltic Sea
• geopolitics
• Russia
• European Union
• security

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Anke Schmidt-Felzmann is a Senior Researcher at the Research Centre of the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania (MAL) and a non-resident Baltic Sea Fellow in the Eurasia programme at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. She holds a PhD from the University of Glasgow and was previously a Research Fellow in the Special Research Programme for International Studies at Utrikespolitiska institutet (UI) in Stockholm. Her research has addressed different aspects of the EU-Russia relationship, the European Neighbourhood Policy, energy supply security, Nordic-Baltic cooperation on security and challenges to conflict resolution in Ukraine after the Russian annexation of Crimea and start of the armed aggression in Eastern Ukraine. Her most recent work examines Sweden's perspective on Germany's role in the Baltic Sea area, new security challenges in Northern Europe, critical.

Kjell Engelbrekt is Professor at the Swedish Defence University and Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of War Studies (Kungliga Krigsvetenskapsakademien, KKrVa), He is also a non-resident Fellow on Global Security at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. He has held visiting fellowships at the European University Institute, Humboldt-Universität, Columbia University and University of Illinois at Chicago. His recent book, published by Georgetown University Press, is High-Table Diplomacy: The Reshaping of International Security Institutions (2016).

ORCID

Anke Schmidt-Felzmann http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4878-9576

Kjell Engelbrekt http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3218-5647