After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were high hopes of Russia's "modernisation" and rapid political and economic integration with the EU. But now, given its own policies of national development, Russia appears to have limits to integration'. Today, much European political discourse again evokes East/West civilisational divides and antagonistic geopolitical interests in EU-Russia relations. This book provides a carefully researched and timely analysis of this complex relationship and examines whether this turn in public debate corresponds to local-level experience -- particularly in border areas where the European Union and Russian Federation meet. This multidisciplinary book - covering geopolitics, international relations, political economy and human geography - argues that the concept limits to integration' has its roots in geopolitical reasoning; it examines how Russian regional actors have adapted to the challenges of simultaneous internal and external integration, and what kind of strategies they have developed in order to meet the pressures coming across the border and from the federal centre. It analyses the reconstitution of Northwest Russia as an economic, social and political space, and the role cross-border interaction has had in this process. The book illustrates how a comparative regional perspective offers insights into the EU-Russia relationship: even if geopolitics sets certain constraints to co-operation, and market processes have led to conflict in cross-border interaction, several actors have been able to take initiative and create space for increasing cross-border integration in the conditions of Russia's internal reconstitution.

This is the fifth volume of The NEBI Yearbook, whose aim it is to provide a balanced picture of integration in the North European and Baltic Sea areas. The special focus of NEBI 2003 is to survey the lessons learned and the experience gained as a result of a decade of intensive pan-Baltic and Barents co-operation made possible as a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Like the previous volumes, NEBI 2003 contains a unique Statistical Section covering the entire NEBI area.

It is widely recognized that the performance and development of firms are heavily influenced by their environment and that the conditions that prevail in the local or regional milieu seem to be particularly important. Furthermore, the fact that economic, entrepreneurial and innovative activities tend to agglomerate at certain places, leading to patterns of national and regional specialization, is increasingly seen to give important insights into the very process of firm competitiveness and industrial transformation. Drawing on other literature and case study material from selected industries, and elaborating on key concepts such as firms and competencies, industries and industrial systems, and competitiveness and prosperity, the authors set out to answer some broad research questions such as what is competition about in today's economy, and how is the performance of firms and industries related to space and place?; why do geographical areas (local milieus, cities, regions, countries) specialize in particular types of economic activity?; and why do patterns of specialization, once in place, tend to be so tremendously durable?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there were high hopes of Russia's "modernisation" and rapid political and economic integration with the EU. But now, given its own policies of national development, Russia appears to have 'limits to integration'. Today, much European political discourse again evokes East/West civilisational divides and antagonistic geopolitical interests in EU-Russia relations. This book provides a carefully researched and timely analysis of this complex relationship and examines whether this turn in public debate corresponds to local-level experience - particularly in border areas where the European Union and Russian Federation meet. This multidisciplinary book - covering geopolitics, international relations, political economy and human geography - argues that the concept 'limits to integration' has its roots in geopolitical reasoning; it examines how Russian regional actors have adapted to the challenges of simultaneous internal and external integration, and what kind of strategies they have developed in order to meet the pressures coming across the border and from the federal centre. It analyses the reconstitution of Northwest Russia as an economic, social and political space, and the role cross-border interaction has had in this process. The book illustrates how a comparative regional perspective offers insights into the EU-Russia relationship: even if geopolitics sets certain constraints to co-operation, and market processes have led to conflict in cross-border interaction, several actors have been able to take initiative and create space for increasing cross-border integration in the conditions of Russia's internal reconstitution.

Bjllrn Tore Godal Norwegian Ambassador to Germany Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board Several of the contributions to the present volume of The NEBI Yearbook have been inspired by the fact that roughly speaking, ten years have passed since the first steps were taken to initiate cross-border co-operation in the Barents and Baltic Sea areas. One of the most important co-operative organisations in the European Northeast, i. e. The Council of the Baltic Sea States, was launched in 1992. The Barents Euro Arctic Council was established in 1993. An avalanche of co-operative and cross-border initiatives has since hit this part of Europe with all kinds of actors participating - states, regional and municipal authorities, univer sities, national organisations, businesses and private interests. Even international organisations and actors from outside the immediate NEBI area have taken a special interest in this dynamic part of the world. Among the most important is the European Union, whose Finnish-inspired Northern Dimension initiative has become a permanent fixture. As many of the chapters in NEBI 2003 testifY, integration in the NEB I area - across old political and ideological borders and cultural and socio-economic divides that are among the most pronounced anywhere in the world - has on the whole been a great success."

Europe's space is in a flux. Earlier cores and peripheries in Europe are experiencing a profound transformation. The driving forces include, amongst others, Western European economic and political integration, and Eastern European transition. We are also witnessing fundamental technological and organisational restructuring of industrial systems. Information technology and telecommunications are rapidly altering the requisites for comparative advantage. Peripherality is being determined more by access to networks than by geographical location. Economies of scale can be attained in distributed networks of production with good access to markets as well as in large agglomerations. Clearly, these changes also call for new perspectives in regional analysis. This book derives its impetus from an Advanced Summer institute in Regional Science which was arranged in Joensuu, Finland, in 1993 under the auspices of the European Regional Science Association. Some of the papers, which were discussed at the institute, were thoroughly revised for the present purpose. In addition, chapters on specific topics were specially written for the volume. In most contributions, the focus is on the Nordic countries and their internal peripheries. They form a particularly interesting case in assessing prospects for the multi-faceted centre-periphery confrontation in Europe.