Distinctive due to explicit and systematically developed links between international relations (IR) and related disciplines, this book addresses global and regional interactions and the complex policy problems that often characterise this agenda. Such enhanced communication is crucial for improving the capacity of IR to engage with concrete issues that today are of high policy relevance for international organisations, states, diplomats, mediators and humankind in general. Whilst the authors do not reject the present IR, they offer a wider research agenda with new directions intended not only for those IR scholars who are unsatisfied with the analytical power of the current discipline, but also for those working on 'international', 'foreign', 'global' or 'interregional' issues in other disciplines and fields of research. In this instance they pay particular attention to linking up with peace research, international political economy (IPE) and cultural political economy (CPE), sociology, political geography, development studies, linguistics, cultural studies, environmental studies and energy research, gender studies, and traditions of area studies.

Distinctive due to explicit and systematically developed links between international relations (IR) and related disciplines, this book addresses global and regional interactions and the complex policy problems that often characterise this agenda. Such enhanced communication is crucial for improving the capacity of IR to engage with concrete issues that today are of high policy relevance for international organisations, states, diplomats, mediators and humankind in general. Whilst the authors do not reject the present IR, they offer a wider research agenda with new directions intended not only for those IR scholars who are unsatisfied with the analytical power of the current discipline, but also for those working on 'international', 'foreign', 'global' or 'interregional' issues in other disciplines and fields of research. In this instance they pay particular attention to linking up with peace research, international political economy (IPE) and cultural political economy (CPE), sociology, political geography, development studies, linguistics, cultural studies, environmental studies and energy research, gender studies, and traditions of area studies.

This book is the first comprehensive study of how and why the European Union has enlarged to become northern Europe's leading power. Pami Aalto presents a new approach to the under-theorized field of EU foreign policy studies, showing how, since 1990, the EU has enlarged to include Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and also incorporated the former East Germany. He also examines how this northern expansion has led the EU to reflect on relations with Russia and its north-western regions. This unique study includes: a fresh approach to the under-theorized field of EU foreign policy key empirical material, including hundreds of documents, interviews and field experiments in-depth case studies of relations between the EU, Nordic states, Baltic states and Russia with its north-western regions. This is essential reading for all students of European politics, Russian studies and international relations.

EU-Russian energy dialogue represents a policy issue that forces us to take a serious look at several crucial questions related to the present and future of Europe such as: how can the EU area ensure its future energy security when it is running out of its own energy resources and at the same time incorporating new members who are also dependent on energy imports? This book not only outlines the overall characteristics of the energy dialogue, but also illustrates the involved policy implementation challenges by paying special attention to the regional context of northern Europe.Due to the many crucial policy issues, this study contributes to diverse fields such as international relations and political science, European studies, studies on energy politics, the international political economy, post-Soviet politics, and literature on regionalisation and regionalisms, with a special reference on northern Europe.

This book is the first comprehensive study of how and why the European Union has enlarged to become northern Europea (TM)s leading power.

Pami Aalto presents a new approach to the under-theorized field of EU foreign policy studies, showing how, since 1990, the EU has enlarged to include Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and also incorporated the former East Germany. He also examines how this northern expansion has led the EU to reflect on relations with Russia and its north-western regions.

This unique study includes:

• a fresh approach to the under-theorized field of EU foreign policy
• key empirical material, including hundreds of documents, interviews and field experiments
• in-depth case studies of relations between the EU, Nordic states, Baltic states and Russia with its north-western regions.

This is essential reading for all students of European politics, Russian studies and international relations.

This work examines the construction of post-Soviet political space, geopolitical discourses and boundaries in Estonia. Making use of innovative methodological solutions such as Q-methodology, its analysis includes in-depth interviews that elucidate a variety of issues through human experience and subjective perception, such as Estonian-Russian border disputes of the 1990s, inter-ethnic issues and national integration and security. As Estonia is one of the frontline EU accession countries and is queuing for membership of NATO, the book raises broad questions of post-Soviet geopolitics in the Baltic region and across Europe. Indeed, Pami Aalto argues that small states such as Estonia should be understood as active participants in post-Soviet and European geopolitics, and not simply pawns in a superpower environment.

Electrification: Accelerating the Energy Transition offers a widely applicable framework to delineate context-sensitive pathways by which this transition can be accelerated and lists the types of processes and structures that may hinder progress towards this goal. The framework draws insights from well-established literature, ranging from technological studies to socio-technical studies of energy transitions, on to strategic niche management approaches, (international) political economy approaches, and institutionalist literatures, while also adopting wider social theoretical ideas from structuration theory. Contributors discuss a multitude of case studies drawn from global examples of electrification projects. Brief case studies and text boxes help users further understand this domain and the technological, infrastructural and societal structures that may exercise significant powers.

This work examines the construction of post-Soviet political space, geopolitical discourses and boundaries in Estonia.

Making use of innovative methodological solutions such as Q-methodology, its analysis includes in-depth interviews that elucidate a variety of issues through human experience and subjective perception, such as Estonian-Russian border disputes of the 1990s, inter-ethnic issues and national integration and security.
As Estonia is one of the frontline EU accession countries and is queuing for membership of NATO, the book raises broad questions of post-Soviet geopolitics in the Baltic region and across Europe. Indeed, Pami Aalto argues that small states such as Estonia should be understood as active participants in post-Soviet and European geopolitics, and not simply pawns in a superpower environment.