Geopolitics Reframed: Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement PDF
Preview Geopolitics Reframed: Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement
Geopolitics Reframed New Visions in Security Series Editor: Richard Ned Lebow Ending the Cold War: Interpretations, Causation, and the Study of International Relations Edited by Richard K. Herrmann and Richard Ned Lebow Embedded Liberalism and Its Critics: Justifying Global Governance in the American Century Jens Steffek Theory and Evidence in Comparative Politics and International Relations Edited by Richard Ned Lebow and Mark Irving Lichbach Geopolitics Reframed: Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement Merje Kuus Geopolitics Reframed Security and Identity in Europe’s Eastern Enlargement Merje Kuus GEOPOLITICSREFRAMED Copyright © Merje Kuus, 2007. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-1-4039-7029-9 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-53196-7 ISBN 978-0-230-60549-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230605497 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: August 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 To my parents This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures viii Preface ix Acknowledgments xiii 1 The Plasticity of Geopolitics 1 2 Inscribing Europeanness, Erasing Eastness 21 3 Civilizational Geopolitics 39 4 Sovereignty for Security? 63 5 Cultural Geopolitics and Cultured Geopoliticians 83 6 The Ritual of Listening to Foreigners 97 7 How Many Threats and How Many Europes? 115 Notes 123 Bibliography 175 Index 205 List of Figures Figure 1. Baltic Manifest 51 Preface This book is rooted in my fascination with the political force and sub- stantive ambiguity of security claims in Europe. As I followed political debates in my home country of Estonia throughout the 1990s, I noticed that the ubiquitous references to security and geopolitics were simulta- neously conspicuous and vague. They were contained within a circular narrative in which security was explained by citing identity and geopol- itics; identity was defined in terms of security and geopolitics; and geopolitics was conjured up as a matter of identity and security. Despite the ever-present evocation of security threats, it remained unclear what specifically was being threatened, by whom, and from where, and how European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) accessions were supposed to protect Estonians from these threats. Estonian politics had become a monomania in which all politics was reduced to security issues and all security issues were reduced to mem- bership in the EU and NATO. This monomania did not invoke an exter- nal threat as the ultimate motive for foreign and security policy, but rather culture and identity. A similarly malleable and cryptic discourse that confuses security, identity, and geography was and is operational across Central Europe—an entity defined here as the new member states of the EU and NATO. There is hardly a political statement about or a scholarly analysis of these states that gets by without references to security and identity. Throughout the region, EU and NATO accessions were promoted not only for economic reasons but equally and sometimes primarily as security measures. Statements about security—“our security concerns”—both start and end arguments about issues ranging from foreign and defense policy to citi- zenship, immigration, and education. Intimations of direct foreign threats were gradually removed from official political rhetoric over the 1990s, but references to “sensitive geopolitical locations,” “gray zones,” “historical legacies,” or “unpredictable neighbors” remained central to public debate. Central Europe was incorporated into the world’s most powerful military alliance in the name of securing it, yet most commentators across Europe agreed that the region was under no military threat.
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