Soft or Hard Borders? Managing the Divide in an Enlarged Europe by Joan s> DeBardeleben (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 377 of Estonia ('FromRestoration to Integration?'),Latvia ('MinorityRights and the Majority'sInsecurity')and Lithuania ('PragmaticInclusivenessand Fear of Uncertain Loyalty').To underline the importance of history in the Baltic States, Budryte adds a further discussion of how 'Soviet genocide' has been remembered there. A conclusion wraps everythingup. Much about this book deservespraise.Apart from the odd flirtwith political sciencejargon it is writtenin a decent, accessiblestyle.The consistentcontention that grapplingwith the past reallycan provide a richerunderstanding of the present is hard to fault too. The idea is well grounded in interesting material,for instance a discussionof how Mart Laar'scareerprogressedfrom dissidenthistorianto prime minister(p. 52). Equally the author makes creditable play on the idea that bit by bit Baltic history is being 'democratized'. With this said, she is also realisticenough to note that Baltic involvement in the Waffen-SS remains a difficultarea (pp. I98 and i85). The questionmarkis whether Budryte has managed to balance the complexity of Baltic history. Certainly the Holocaust crops up, but whether the text says enough about it is another matter. Also there is no mention at all of the landmarkexperimentsin organizing multi-ethnic societies which were attempted here between the wars, that is to say the autonomous schooling project in Latvia and full cultural autonomy in Estonia. In this light, the reality of what has been happening recently is rathermore complicated than the hypothesissketchedout in the firstchapter -namely that illiberalnationalism has been changing to liberal (pp. 56-57). In the I920S, if not before, there was also quite a bit of 'liberalnationalism'on displayin this region. Budryte has produced a book that contains a good amount of interesting material and insight. If the study is not 'comprehensive',perhaps this reflects the fact that Baltic historiography is very much 'work in progress' at the moment. But the author has made a good contributionhere. Department of SocialSciences andHumanities M. HOUSDEN University ofBradford DeBardeleben, Joan (ed.).SoftorHardBorders? Managing theDivideinanEnlarged Europe. Ashgate,Aldershotand Burlington,VT, 2005. iX + 204 pp. Notes. Bibliographies.Index. ?49.95. EUROPE'S bordersare of immense academic, political and public concern and therefore this is a timely collection of papers discussingthe consequences of enlargementfor the bordersof the EuropeanUnion and, to a lesserextent, for the notion of Europe as a geographicaland bordered entity. Joan DeBardeleben has done a good job in ensuringthis volume discusses border management in an enlarged Europe thoroughly. The book is organized into three thematicallycoherentpartsthat enable contributorsto look at specific border management issues in depth. Part One discussesthe idea of 'wider Europe', exploring how EU relations with the westernmost former Soviet states(particularlyUkraine),with Russia itself,and with Romania offer insightsinto how the EU is dealing with incorporatingnew members -the 378 SEER, 85, 2, 2007 case of Romania and simultaneously delineating an 'outside' that is unlikelyto be brought 'in' for the foreseeablefuture.This process is explored not just from an EU perspective, though. Drago? Popa and Bogdan Buduru show how meeting EU requirements affects Romania's relations with neighbours such as Moldova and Serbia where, especiallyin the case of the former, it has a historicallydistinctivespecial relationship.Charles Pentland discussesthe EU's relationshipwith Ukraine, particularlyin light of Russia's influence. Recent developments following the 'Orange Revolution' and disputes over energy prices fall outside the chapter's scope, but Pentlands clearly defined analytical structure makes it easy to see how the change in Kiev's political balance is likely to alter again the see-sawingof Ukraine's relationship with the EU and what this means for Ukraine's position as perhapsthe most significantstatefor understandingwhere and how the limit:s of EU expansion are being set. Part Two focuses upon the mechanics of EU cooperation in managing its new bordersand border challenges. Hel&nePellerin covers economic and securityfactorswithin migration and border controls;Sandra Lavenex looks at 'inclusion' and 'exclusion' through the tensions between 'softening' and 'hardening' borders within discussions of justice and home affairs. Finally, Jorg Minar assessesspecificintegratedbordermanagement operationsby EUJ member states and others, such as Norway, against a backdropof proposals for greater cooperation, possibly culminating in an integrated, or at least networked,EU border guard.All of these chaptersofferrich detail about EU efforts to think through and develop effective administrativearrangements and policies that address powerful, but competing, demands...