From Utopian to Distopian Regionalism: A Study of Unfulfilled Expectations in the Baltic Sea Region

Abstract

Framing the Baltic Sea region (BSR) as caught between European Union discourses, Russian influence, and the region’s own identity dynamics, I build arguments around various contestations of these issues. Not all of the initial plans of the European Union and NATO regarding the future of region building in this part of Europe lived up to initial expectations, given the unexpected conflicts and ruptures after the end of the Cold War. My analysis aims to critically revise the main concepts that have shaped the discourses and policy practices of regionalism in Baltic Europe since the early 1990s. Responding to the main questions raised in the symposium, I claim that the post-Cold War combination of the European Union’s liberal normativity and post-modernist discourses failed to secure regional coherence, which explains the current trends toward the increasing fragmentation and division of Baltic Sea regionalism into three fields: good governance, energy projects, and security. Only the first of these three is grounded in adherence to liberal norms and principles.