Editorial Foreword

Abstract

A large part of the articles published in the current issue of Revista Română de Studii Baltice şi Nordice / The Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies have been initially presented at the Fourth International Conference on Baltic and Nordic Studies in Romania: Empire-Building and Region-Building in the Baltic, North and Black Sea areas held at Ovidius University Of Constanța in May 2013. The conference approached the North in the wider perspective of regional cooperation intra- and extra-Nordic muros. The North is regarded as a springboard of regional cooperation which has a strong though faltering historical and cultural background and an obvious European dimension. The downfall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the process of European integration (whether some of the Nordic countries belong to the EU or not, they are all part and parcel of the process and deeply affected by it) have encouraged the development of regional cooperation in Northern Europe. Belonging to the Northern dimension of the EU meant not only maintaining a regional identity with deep roots in history and culture and making the others acknowledge it, but also strengthening the influence of Nordic countries within and outside the EU and fostering other regional cooperation initiatives in the Baltic Sea area and outside it. Patterned on the Nordic regional cooperation, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia strengthened their regional cooperation and envisaged deepening their ties to surrounding areas, especially with the Nordic countries. Alongside the Nordic countries, they also gradually turned into a model for the Danubian and Black Sea countries. In this respect, the conference addressed themes such as: the empire building, region-building, national/nationalist, cultural construction discourses present in these regions; the historic development of these regional initiatives and/or organizations and the relations between them; political, cultural and diplomatic relations between Baltic and/or Nordic states, on the one hand, and the Black Sea countries, on the other hand; the relations between the EU integration and different Baltic, North and Black Sea regional structures; education and leadership in the context of regionalization in the Baltic Sea and Black Sea areas; linguistic unity and diversity in Scandinavia and the Baltic states; Nordic and Baltic identity through cultural diversity; water protection in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea Region and the role of agriculture; inter- and intra-regional comparisons.