Pertti Joenniemi - Kaliningrad: the European Amber Region

KALININGRAD: THE EUROPEAN AMBER REGION

This book may also be identified as a publication of the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute and the land Island's Peace Institute

Edited by
Pertti Joenniemi
Jan Prawitz

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Pertti Joenniemi and Jan Prawitz 1998

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 98007937

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-32416-9 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-429-44762-4 (ebk)

Lyndelle D. Fairlie , Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Arts and Letters, San Diego State University, California, USA.

Gennady M. Fyodorov , Rector of Kaliningrad State University, Russia.

Algirdas Gricius , Associate Professor, Institute of International Relations and Political Science, University of Vilnius, Lithuania.

Pertti Joenniemi , Project Director, Copenhagen Peace Research Institute, Denmark.

Helena Kropinova , Senior Researcher, Institute for Environment, Kaliningrad State University, Russia.

Zdzislaw Lachowski , Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Sweden.

Peer H. Lange , Senior Research Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Forschungsinstitut fr Internationale Politik und Sicherheit, Ebenhausen, Germany.

Ingmar Oldberg , Senior Researcher, National Defence Research Establishment, Stockholm, Sweden.

Klaus Carsten Pedersen , Director, The Danish Foreign Policy Society, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Jan Prawitz , Visiting Researcher, Institute of International Affairs, Stockholm, Sweden.

Anatoly Trynkov , Head of Department, Russia's Institute for Strategic Studies, Moscow, Russia.

Christian Wellman , Deputy Director, Schleswig-Holstein Institute for Peace Research, Kiel, Germany.

Kaliningrad, located in the south-eastern corner of the Eastern Baltic Seaboard, denotes an unusual degree of remoteness, marginality and dependency.

The region's geographic detachment from mainland Russia and its wedged position between Lithuania and Poland have produced a number of rather traditional debates. These pertain to the oblast' s military saliency, and more generally to Russia's sovereignty and its territorial integrity, but also to some less conventional themes such as regionalism and the devolvement of power within Russia. These latter issues include the relationship between Moscow as the centre and Kaliningrad as a periphery, i.e. issues relating to the question how Russia should be organized and what it basically is in the post-Cold War situation.

In the context of Kaliningrad, the old and traditional often seems to stand in stark contrast with the new and incoming. There is much in the region that culturally, politically or economically remains firmly hooked into the past while at the same time - due to its location - it is more exposed to European trends than Russia in general. This position turns Kaliningrad unavoidably into a key factor denoting Russia's approach towards the rest of Europe, and - what is perhaps equally interesting - a site reflecting the European Union's treatment of Russia.

There is no doubt that issues concerning Kaliningrad's ambiguous history, its special status, problems of transit by land or sea, the peculiarities of the region's economy and its sensitive role with respect to Russia's integrity still inform much of the discourse. However, there are also new themes present in the discussion. Linking in to the various European networks is obviously one of these. It is understood, in this context, that the core issue is one of counteracting peripherality - the success of which is being determined by access to various networks rather than by anything related to the region's geographic location. Kaliningrad's locale is thus not viewed as a fatal syndrome implying danger, backwardness and isolation. Its position as the westernmost part of Russia can also, to an increasing degree, provide a viable platform for cultural contacts, economic interaction and political cooperation. It is being recognized that regions such as Kaliningrad can, at least in principle, become competitive within the new European political and economic order. Thus it may remain peripheral in some ways and yet occupy a far more central position in others.