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The only comprehensive English-language study of Kaliningrad, this invaluable book explores the history and uncertain fate of the former East Prussia. Once touted as a future Hong Kong, Russia's western-most oblast has become a black hole of social and economic decay. Often overlooked in the West, this exclave is a potential flashpoint in an already unstable region. Richard Krickus, a leading expert on Kaliningrad, fills a crucial gap by tracing its long history of unstable possession, critiquing Russian and Western policy, and mapping out possible futures for the oblast. Visit our website for sample chapters!
The Kaliningradskaya Oblast, Russia's Baltic enclave which soon will turn into an island amid the enlarged EU and NATO, constitutes a twofold challenge to European politics: Due to its economic, social, historical, geographical, strategic, and cultural peculiarities the detached region may become a source of instability. However, due to the same peculiarities the region also bears the potential to serve as a pilot-region for an EU-Russian partnership. To meet the latter perspective all actors concerned need to engage in a dialogue-based, coordinated, and problem-solving approach. This study provides recommendations to a wide range of actors on how to approach the Kaliningrad challenge in a proactive manner. It presents a policy paper drafted by a group of Kaliningrad experts from eight countries and is complemented by fourteen issue-oriented chapters which provide in-depth reasoning on the suggestions made by the group. Hanne-Margret Birckenbach is professor of political sciences at the University of Giessen, Germany. Christian Wellmann is deputy director of SHIP--The Schleswig-Holstein Institute for Peace Research, Germany.
The book investigates into the domestic background of Russia's policy with respect to its Baltic exclave, the EU and NATO encircled Kaliningrad region. Based solely on Russian sources, the book strives for deepening the understanding of Russia's Kaliningrad policy by non-Russian actors and of why it quite often appears to be unsuitable, eruptive or offensive. The policy issues studied in-depth concern identity formation, economic development and the visa regime. Common to all is that the respective federal policies are strongly affected by worries about the territorial integrity of Russia and the possibility of alienation of the exclave from the mainland. The book concludes with lessons to be learned on how to respond constructively to the mode of Russia's Kaliningrad policy.
Attempting to provide a fully-fledged theory of enclaves and exclaves, A Theory of Enclaves covers a wide scope of regions and territories throughout the world and satisfies the need for a systematic view on enclaves. This book covers 282 enclaves, with a combined population total of approximately three million, but the importance of enclaves is much higher because of their specific status and issues raised for both the mainland states and the surrounding states: Gibraltar was disproportionately large for British-Spanish relations throughout the last three centuries, Kaliningrad managed to cause a major crisis in the EU-Russian relations in 2002-03, Tiny Ceuta and Melilla have caused tension...
Crisis Management Challenges in Kaliningrad captures the evolving nature of the types of crises faced by a society as it transforms and evolves. Once the westernmost bastion of the Soviet Union and now the westernmost part of the Russian Federation, the Kaliningrad Oblast remains cut off from direct land communication with mainland Russia and provides a condensed, real-life laboratory in which to observe changing political, technological and economic priorities in Post-Soviet society. Expert contributors from the region chart the tensions, problems and opportunities created by the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and examine the change in status and situation of the Kaliningrad Oblast. By looking at a selection of economic, environmental and social crises a historical link between the Soviet and Post-Soviet eras is formed and rigorously examined.
The final chapter relates the evolution of these conflicting loyalties to the global weakening of the nation-state, and distinguishes what is particular to the Soviet state and its demise from more significant questions of analytical importance posed by the collapse of a major contemporary multi-national state.
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This volume concisely and systematically presents our current knowledge of the terrestrial environment and inland water resources in the Kaliningrad Region. The 22 chapters, including an introduction and a conclusion, are based on observational data; scientific literature, mainly published in Russian; and the authors’ long-standing experience in this area of research. The book is intended for specialists working in various fields of environmental sciences and ecology; water resources and management; land reclamation and agriculture; and international cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. This is the first of four volumes on Environmental Studies in the Kaliningrad Region. The other three volumes, to be published in the coming years, will be devoted to the physical oceanography, geoecology and bioecology of the Southeastern Baltic Sea.