Christopher S. Browning

Geostrategies of the European neighbourhood policy

The debate about the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has, in essence, been about borders and bordering. Such departures could contribute — and often do so — to a rather fixed geopolitical vision of what the EU is about and how it aims to run and to organize the broader European space. However, this article aims to retain space for viewing the ENP as a developmental and somewhat fluid process. A conceptual framework, based on outlining three geopolitical models and a series of different geopolitical strategies employed by the EU in regard to its borders, is hence employed in order to be able to tell a more dynamic story regarding the developing nature of the ENP and the EUs evolving nature more generally. The complexity traced informs us that various geostrategies may be held at the same time at the external border. Moreover, the dominance of one geostrategy may be replaced by another or a different combination of them with regard to the same neighbourhood. It is, more generally, argued that if anything it is precisely this dynamism that should be championed as a valuable resource, avoiding the tendency to close off options through the reification of particular visions of the nature of the EU and its borders.

The future of critical security studies: Ethics and the politics of security:

‘Critical security studies’ has come to occupy a prominent place within the lexicon of International Relations and security studies over the past two decades. While disagreement exists about the boundaries of this sub-discipline or indeed some of its central commitments, in this article we argue that we can indeed talk about a ‘critical security studies’ project orienting around three central themes. The first is a fundamental critique of traditional (realist) approaches to security; the second is a concern with the politics of security — the question of what security does politically; while the third is with the ethics of security — the question of what progressive practices look like regarding security. We suggest that it is the latter two of these concerns with the politics and ethics of security that ultimately define the ‘critical security studies’ project. Taking the so-called Welsh School and Copenhagen School frameworks as archetypal examples of ‘critical security studies’ (and its limits), in this article we argue that despite its promises, scholarship in this tradition has generally fallen short of providing us with a sophisticated, convincing account of either the politics or the ethics of security. At stake in the failure to provide such an account is the fundamental question of whether we need a ‘critical security studies’ at all.

Branding Nordicity Models, Identity and the Decline of Exceptionalism

This article introduces the idea of brands to debates about Nordic models and identity. Understanding brands to be more strategic and stable than identities, the article shows how a Nordic brand was marketed during the Cold War, but has since been challenged and undermined by a number of pressures. Central to the Nordic brand have been ideas of Nordic ‘exceptionalism’—of the Nordics as being different from or better than the norm—and of the Nordic experience, norms and values as a model to be copied by others. In the post-Cold War period, key aspects of the Nordic brand have been challenged. On the one hand, elements of the Nordic elite appear to have forsaken the brand. On the other, broader recognition of a distinct Nordic brand is being undermined with the melding of Nordic with European practices and processes. The article concludes by asking whether the decline of the Nordic brand matters and further explores the link between Nordicity as a brand and as an identity.

Small, Smart and Salient? Rethinking Identity in the Small States Literature

The article adopts a critical perspective on the generally negative view in mainstream and cognitivist understandings of the power of small states and introduces a discursive approach. This focuses on how ‘smallness’ can also be told in more positive ways in the construction of state identities. Looking at the case of Finland, it is shown how smallness has been told differently at different times with specific implications flowing from these different readings as to the possibilities for action in foreign policy. More particularly, it is argued that smallness is being replaced by the marker of being smart and innovative, with some Finnish politicians arguing that in the current post-Cold-War world the framework of big–small is increasingly less relevant.

Regionality Beyond Security: The Baltic Sea Region after Enlargement

This article addresses the issue of the relationship between security-speak and regional cooperation in Northern Europe. In the post-Cold War period, it is argued, regional cooperation has been driven by a mixture of realist- and liberalist-based security discourses. While realism results in cooperation through othering, liberalism rather promotes cooperation through inclusion. On the whole, security has been a unifying theme, not a divisive one. European Union and NATO enlargements, however, are undermining the security bases of regional cooperation. The article asks the question of what will happen to regional cooperation if security is removed from the frame. Will regional cooperation wither away as a political project? Or will attempts at re-securitization be made to rejuvenate regional cooperation? Either way there are apparently difficulties in thinking of regional cooperation without relying on security for motivation and justification. Through a revisionist account of Nordic cooperation that challenges the idea that Norden is a security community par excellence and is rather driven by a security concerns, a way out of the security-cooperation dilemma is offered.

Contending Discourses of Marginality: The Case of Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad is argued to raise profound questions regarding the role, power and influence of marginal actors in EU–Russian relations as well as international politics at large. Such entities may have to confine themselves to a totally subordinated position but they can also gain, as seems increasing to have been the case with Kaliningrad, considerable influence. As spaces in-between, or as potentially emergent third spaces that significantly problematise the idea of territorial sovereignty, they do not only influence – by blurring borders and various conceptual categories – the setting of local or regional agendas. They may also impact upon the very constitution of subjectivity, in the cases of both the EU and Russia. In this essay these processes are tackled, above all by scrutinising how margins are understood in both common and theoretical discourses with the departures unfolding then explored in the case of Kaliningrad.

The European Union’s Two Dimensions: The Eastern and the Northern

In light of the forthcoming enlargement of the European Union, concerns over how the Union will deal with its new eastern neighbours have risen to some prominence. This article analyses Poland’s current efforts to get to grips with the new challenges posed by enlargement, as expressed in its policy initiative of the Eastern Dimension. In particular, the Eastern Dimension is compared with the EU’s Northern Dimension, which has been on the scene for some time. The argument of this article is that, despite some similarities and despite the fact that the Eastern Dimension has clearly been influenced by its Northern counterpart, key conceptual differences exist between the two initiatives. While the Northern Dimension opens up for overlapping spaces of governance, for being genuinely inclusive of outsiders and for emphasizing regionality in the construction of a new Europe, the Eastern Dimension remains more traditional in essence. Indeed, in some respects the Eastern Dimension, despite apparent intentions otherwise, will only contribute to re-bordering in Europe.

Ontological security, self-articulation and the securitization of identity

The concept of ontological security has made increasing headway within International Relations, in particular through its ability to offer alternative explanations of the forces underpinning security dilemmas and conflict in world politics. While welcoming the insights already provided by its application, this article argues that the concept’s use to date has been too much geared to questions of identity-related stability, with change viewed as disturbing and anxiety-inducing. In contrast, the article calls for a more open understanding that: (i) links ontological security to reflexivity and avoids collapsing together the concepts of self, identity and ontological security; (ii) avoids privileging securitization over desecuritization as a means for generating ontological security; and (iii) opens out the concept beyond a narrow concern with questions of conflict and the conduct of violence more towards the theorization of positive change.

A multi‐dimensional approach to regional cooperation: The United States and the Northern European initiative

This article explores the origins and development of the United States’ Northern European Initiative (NEI). A theoretical framework is developed arguing that elements of traditional geopolitics, liberal internationalism and postmodern thinking can be identified within the NEI. These diverse approaches should not be seen as competing, but rather reflect significant versatility in US strategy in northern Europe. The close linkage between the NEI and US NATO policy is highlighted. While such a linkage is understandable it is argued this in fact threatens to undermine the positive gains of the NEI. The article also analyses the relationship between the NEI and the EUs Northern Dimension Initiative and concludes by considering the impact the new Republican Administration is likely to have on US policy.

Reassessing Putin's project : reflections on IR theory and the West

Putins aim was not to isolate Russia from international society but to challenge the Wests claim to define its norms.