Spatial Practices and Time in Estonia: From Post-Soviet Geopolitics to European Governance

Abstract

The article examines spatial practices and time in post-Soviet Estonia as a particularly illuminating example of the issues involved in post-Soviet geopolitics and the geopolitics of European governance. The article makes use of recent critical geopolitics literature. It enquires into Estonia's early-mid 1990s post-Soviet geopolitics that led to the emergence of the Estonian- Russian land border dispute, the Estonian-Latvian maritime border dispute and a conflict with Russia. These disputes faded away towards the late 1990s as Estonia's essentially modern post-Soviet geopolitics became increasingly suppressed by the geopolitics of the expansion of the area of European governance, connoting both modern and post-modern spatial practices. In the more conceptual sense, the case-study analysis also highlights the pivotal role of identity politics and the politics of time and memory in post-Soviet geopolitics and geopolitics in general.