Description
Product ID: | 9780415851374 |
Product Form: | Paperback / softback |
Country of Manufacture: | GB |
Series: | New International Relations |
Title: | The Politics of Becoming European |
Subtitle: | A study of Polish and Baltic Post-Cold War security imaginaries |
Authors: | Author: Maria Malksoo |
Page Count: | 224 |
Subjects: | Peace studies and conflict resolution, Peace studies & conflict resolution, Social and political philosophy, Political science and theory, Warfare and defence, Social & political philosophy, Political science & theory, Warfare & defence |
Description: | This book examines the relations between security, identity and collective memory, focusing on the dynamics of identity formation among the elites of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in relation to security and foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. This book weaves together perspectives drawn from critical international relations, anthropology and social theory in order to understand the Polish and Baltic post-Cold War politics of becoming European. Approaching the study of Europe’s eastern enlargement through a post-colonial critique, author Maria Mälksoo makes a convincing case for a rethinking of European identity. Drawing on the theorist Edward Said, she contends that studies of the European Union are marked by a prevailing Orientalism, rarely asking who has traditionally been able to define European identity, and whether this identity should be presented as an historical process rather than a static category. The central argument of this book is that the historical experience of being framed as simultaneously in Europe - and yet not quite in Europe – informs the current self-understandings and security imaginaries of Poland and the Baltic States. Exploring this existential condition of ‘liminal Europeaness’ among foreign and security policy-making elites, the book considers its effects on key security policy issues, including relations with Western Europe, Russia and the United States. Supported by solid empirical analyses, this book provides an innovative and interdisciplinary approach to the post-Cold War predicament of Poland and the Baltic States. It will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, European Studies, Social and Political Theory, and Anthropology. |
Imprint Name: | Routledge |
Publisher Name: | Taylor & Francis Ltd |
Country of Publication: | GB |
Publishing Date: | 2013-06-01 |