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The Kaliningradskaya Oblast, Russia's Baltic enclave which soon will turn into an island amid the enlarged EU and NATO, constitutes a twofold challenge to European politics: Due to its economic, social, historical, geographical, strategic, and cultural peculiarities the detached region may become a source of instability. However, due to the same peculiarities the region also bears the potential to serve as a pilot-region for an EU-Russian partnership. To meet the latter perspective all actors concerned need to engage in a dialogue-based, coordinated, and problem-solving approach. This study provides recommendations to a wide range of actors on how to approach the Kaliningrad challenge in a proactive manner. It presents a policy paper drafted by a group of Kaliningrad experts from eight countries and is complemented by fourteen issue-oriented chapters which provide in-depth reasoning on the suggestions made by the group. Hanne-Margret Birckenbach is professor of political sciences at the University of Giessen, Germany. Christian Wellmann is deputy director of SHIP--The Schleswig-Holstein Institute for Peace Research, Germany.
The book investigates into the domestic background of Russia's policy with respect to its Baltic exclave, the EU and NATO encircled Kaliningrad region. Based solely on Russian sources, the book strives for deepening the understanding of Russia's Kaliningrad policy by non-Russian actors and of why it quite often appears to be unsuitable, eruptive or offensive. The policy issues studied in-depth concern identity formation, economic development and the visa regime. Common to all is that the respective federal policies are strongly affected by worries about the territorial integrity of Russia and the possibility of alienation of the exclave from the mainland. The book concludes with lessons to be learned on how to respond constructively to the mode of Russia's Kaliningrad policy.
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The book examines the evolution of EU conflict prevention as an internal EU process and as an area of external cooperation with the UN, OSCE and NATO. Conflict prevention has emerged as a prominent EU policy in the post-Cold War era. Yet, how suited is the organisation to practice conflict prevention, and what does the record of cooperation with other key European organisations tell us about the EU's external priorities? The book critically analyses the EU's policy and outcomes to date, concluding that conflict prevention is underdeveloped by the EU, and is in danger of being marginalised in favour of shorter-term crisis management. Moreover, EU external cooperation reinforces this: the priority is cooperation in crisis management with the UN and NATO, rather than longer-term cooperation with the OSCE.
The only comprehensive English-language study of Kaliningrad, this invaluable book explores the history and uncertain fate of the former East Prussia. Once touted as a future Hong Kong, Russia's western-most oblast has become a black hole of social and economic decay. Often overlooked in the West, this exclave is a potential flashpoint in an already unstable region. Richard Krickus, a leading expert on Kaliningrad, fills a crucial gap by tracing its long history of unstable possession, critiquing Russian and Western policy, and mapping out possible futures for the oblast. Visit our website for sample chapters!