Letland – EU-medlem og Ruslands nære nabo

Hvis magtpolitikken vender tilbage, skal vi sørge for at EU er stærk nok til at spille spillet. Realpoli- tik kræver at vi forstår, at vi kun kan være med til at forme politikken, hvis vi også inddrager de områder som nogle opfatter som Ruslands baggård.&nbsp

The Memory Politics of Becoming European: The East European Subalterns and the Collective Memory of Europe

The situation in collective memory studies that share a nexus with the discipline of International Relations (IR) is currently reflective of the traditionally West-centric writing of European history. This order of things has become increasingly challenged after the eastern enlargement of the European Union (EU). This article examines Poland’s and the Baltics’ recent attempts to enlarge the mnemonic vision of ‘the united Europe’ by placing their ‘subaltern pasts’ in contest with the conventionally Western European-bent understanding of the consequences of World War II in Europe. I argue that their endeavours to wrench the ‘European mnemonical map’ apart in order to become more congruent with the different historical experiences within the enlarged EU encapsulate the curious trademark of Polish and Baltic post-Cold War politics of becoming European: their combination of simultaneously seeking recognition from and resisting the hegemonic ‘core European’ narrative of what ‘Europe’ is all about

From nationalism to ethnic policy The Latvian nation in the present and in the past

Ziel der Untersuchung ist es, eine soziologische Erklaerung fuer die Entstehung und Entwicklung der lettischen Nation und die Nationalitaetenpolitik des lettischen Staates in der Zwischenkriegszeit und heute zu liefern. Der Verfasser setzt sich zunaechst auf theoretischer Ebene mit Nationenbildung, Nationalismus, der Entstehung von Nationalstaaten, ethnischem Konflikt und Nationalitaetenpolitik auseinander. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird die Entstehung einer lettischen Identitaet vom 2. vorchristlichen Jahrtausend bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg nachgezeichnet. Es schliesst sich eine Darstellung der Nationalitaetenpolitik Lettlands zwischen 1918 und 1940 an. Das folgende Kapitel behandelt den Zusammenbruch des lettischen Staates und das Ueberleben der lettischen Nation in den Jahren 1939 bis 1959. Der Zusammenbruch der Sowjetunion Ende der achtziger Jahre und die Restauration eines unabhaengigen lettischen Staates werden auf einen fortschreitenden Aufloesungsprozess der sowjetischen Gesellschaft zurueckgefuehrt. Abschliessend diskutiert der Verfasser die lettische Nationalitaetenpolitik nach 1991. (ICE)German title: Vom Nationalismus zur Nationalitaetenpolitik: die lettische Nation in Gegenwart und VergangenheitAvailable from UuStB Koeln(38)-20000106047 / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

From Existential Politics Towards Normal Politics? The Baltic States in the Enlarged Europe

This article presents a critical discourse analysis of the Baltic states’ self-positioning within European foreign policy. It argues that, despite certain relief in their immediate security concerns after the dual enlargement of the EU and NATO, the shift from existential politics to normal politics by the Baltic states is far from being accomplished. The way in which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) have responded to the construction of their identity as ‘Europe but not Europe’ throughout the enlargement processes of the EU and NATO has been largely neglected in empirical studies on their post-Cold War self-conceptualizations in the European arena. Yet, the experience of being framed as simultaneously in Europe and not quite European has left a constitutive imprint on the current security imaginary of the Baltic states. William Connolly’s concept of the politics of becoming is thus applied to analyse the Baltic version of becoming a subject in the field of common European foreign policy

Fair treatment in a divided society : a bottom up assessment of bureaucratic encounters in Latvia

In real-world bureaucratic encounters the Weberian goal of perfect impersonal administration is not completely attained and unfairness sometimes results. Theories of bias attribute unfairness to social characteristics such as income, education, ethnicity, and gender. A random theory characterizes unfairness as the result of idiosyncratic conditions that give everyone an equal probability of being treated unfairly regardless of their social characteristics. In Latvia, bias would be expected on grounds of ethnicity as well as social characteristics, since its population is divided politically by citizenship, language, and ethnicity as well as socioeconomic characteristics. Survey data from the New Baltic Barometer shows that a majority of both Latvians and Russians expect fair treatment in bureaucratic encounters and multivariate statistical analysis confirms the random hypothesis. Insofar as unfair treatment occurs it tends to be distributed according to idiosyncratic circumstances rather than being the systematic fate of members of a particular social group. The evidence indicates that the professional norms and training of service deliverers are more important in bureaucratic encounters than individual attributes of claimants, even in a clearly divided society