Remapping Security on Europe’s Northern Borders by Laine, Jussi P.; Liikanen, Ilkka; Scott, James W.;

Short description:

This book critically analyses the changing EU-Russian security environment in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, with a particular focus on northern Europe where the EU and the Russian Federation share a common border.

Long description:

This book critically analyses the changing EU-Russian security environment in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, with a particular focus on northern Europe where the EU and the Russian Federation share a common border.

Russian involvement in conflict situations in the EU’s immediate neighbourhood has drastically impacted the European security environment, leading to a resurgence of competitive great power relations. The book uses the EU-Russia interface at the borders of Finland and the European North as a prism through which interwoven external and internal security challenges can be explored. Security is considered in the broadest sense of the term, as the authors consider how the security environment is reflected politically, socially and culturally within European societies. The book analyses changing political language and concepts, institutional preparedness, border governance, human security, migration and wider challenges to societal resilience. Ultimately, the book investigates into Finland’s preparedness to address new global security challenges and to find solutions to them on an everyday level.

This book will be an important guide for researchers and upper-level students of security, border studies, Russian and European studies, as well as to policy makers looking to develop a wider, contextualized understanding of the challenges to stability and security in different parts of Europe.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Changing dimensions of the Northern European security environment, Jussi P. Laine, Ilkka Liikanen & James W. Scott  PART I: Remapping security political environments  1. Russia and the EU: different dimensions of security and cooperation, Vladimir Kolosov & Alexander Sebentsov  2. Neighbourhood and the West: Shifting key concepts of Finland’s geopolitical positioning, Ilkka Liikanen  3. "Foreign Agent" as an internal representative of "the West" in Russia’s geopolitical discourses, Veera Laine & Kristiina Silvan  PART II: Security on and beyond national borders  4. Implementation of European Union security strategies in the context of Integrated Border Management, Sari Lindblom & Joona Castrén  5. The geography of threat perceptions of Russian borders, Aappo Kähönen  6. Confusing compass points of human security – Finnish perspectives, Jussi P. Laine  7. Finland, the European Union, and the strategies of the Northern region, Alina Kuusisto  8. PART III: Geographies of migration and everyday security  9. Images of Finland, Europe and the West among asylum seekers, Joni Virkkunen & Minna Piipponen  10. To go or not to go? Finland’s Russian speakers discuss the Immortal Regiment march in Finland, Olga Davydova-Minguet  11. Welfare state, competition state, security state: Nationalism in nation-state responses to cross-border mobilities, Pauli Kettunen  Epilogue: Finland and the borderland identity – implications for foreign and security policy, Teija Tiilikainen