This book focuses on the recent political trajectories within the Baltic Sea Region from one of the success stories of regionalism in Europe to a potential area of military confrontation between Russia and NATO. The authors closely examine the following issues: new security challenges for the region stemming from Russia's staunch anti-EU and anti-NATO polices, institutions and practices of multi-level governance in the region, and different cultural strategies that regional actors employ. The common threads of this innovative volume are issues of changing borders and boundaries in the region, and logics of inclusion and exclusion that shape its political contours. From diverse disciplinary and methodological positions the authors explain policies of specific Baltic Sea states, as well as structural matters that make them a region.

Introduction :Andrey Makarychev and Klaus Segbers PART I: SECURITY RESURFACED: REBORDERING ON THE HORIZON? Chapter 1 Practising Baltic security at the overlap of the European and the post-Soviet societies of states Thomas Linsenmaier Chapter 2 The Baltic Sea Region: From a hinge between Russia and the West to a rhizomatic information channel Aki-Mauri Huhtinen Chapter 3 Security Dynamics in the Baltic Sea Region before and after the Ukraine Crisis Elena Kropacheva PART 2: RETYING THE REGION, UNLOCKING THE BORDERS: INSTITUTIONS AND GOVERNANCE Chapter 4 Regional cooperation with an uncooperative hegemon: the case of the Baltic Sea Region Dovile Jakniunaite and Zivile Marija Vaicekauskaite Chapter 5 When Left and Right Is a Matter of Identity: Overlapping political dimensions in Estonia and Latvia Kjetil Duvold Chapter 6 Russian speaking community in Estonia: Legal, political and security analysis Thomas Hoffmann and Andrey Makarychev Chapter 7 Baltic Region and Central Asia: what does it take to make a region? A critical perspective. Anastasia Vishnevskaya PART 3: INCLUSIONS AND MOBILITIES: CULTURAL STRATEGIES OF BORDER-(UN)LOCKING Chapter 8 Shaping Estonian: national identity in film, art and singing Alexandra Yatsyk Chapter 9 The "Russian World" and the Securitization of Identity Boundaries in Latvia Angela Kachuyevski Chapter 10 (Re)-Drawing Borders: Russia and the Baltic states Elizaveta Gaufman