After a period of turbulence in 2014–2015 followed by Russia’s actions in Ukraine, tense stability has emerged in the Baltic Sea area. The current regional security landscape is shaped by three interconnected security dynamics: Russian assertive behaviour, NATO’s reassurance and deterrence measures, and Finland’s and Sweden’s closer integration into the Western deterrence network. The interplay between the dynamics will determine the nature of the regional security environment in the 2020s. Russia’s provocative measures in the region or elsewhere will likely strengthen the foothold of Western security structures in the Baltic Sea area. Moreover, NATO, Finland, and Sweden should continue to find ways to enhance stability without unnecessarily feeding Russian provocativeness. The sources of regional tensions lie elsewhere, and the Baltic Sea region will remain a contested area as long as the West and Russia are at loggerheads.

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.

The book examines the security puzzles posed by the remaining legacies of dominance and conflict in the Baltic Sea region as governments seek to integrate the three Baltic sates in a more stable system of cooperative security.

This book focuses on four former Soviet sub-regions - the Baltic Sea region, the Slavic republics, the Black Sea region, and Central Asia - to explore the degree to which "democratic security" has been established.

Ann-Sofie Dahl brings together an international group of experts to examine Baltic security issues on a state-by-state basis and to contemplate what is needed to deter Russia in the region. They analyze ways to strengthen regional cooperation and to ensure that Baltic security stays a top priority despite competing strategic perspectives.

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.