著者

大島 美穂

出版者

JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

雑誌

国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)

巻号頁・発行日

no.110, pp.39-54,L7, 1995

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In this paper 1 consider the process and meanings by which the Nordic countries, in face of their identity crisis, inclined toward Baltic Sea cooperation as a new framework of regional cooperation.<br>After the Cold War, paradoxically the Nordic countries seemed to lose their superiority in Europe, because it became clear that their stability and unity, whose characteristics are a lower tension area with no nuclear weapons and no foreign troops, and a welfare society, was dependent on the fact that they kept their distance from East-West confrontation. In today's Europe, distance from Central Europe and the EU means away from the centre of Europe's new dynamism, and the Nordic countries changed into the periphery. In this threat to their existence the Nordic countries tried to seek another way of regional cooperation and committed themselves to Baltic Sea cooperation.<br>Apart from self-containment Nordic cooperation, Baltic Sea cooperation because of its location, is not only open to East-West relations, but also can contribute to smooth relations between "the developed West" and "the developing East".<br>Besides the emergence of sub-regional cooperation, such as Baltic Sea cooperation, has something to do with the changes of the qualitative and territorial meanings of security in Europe. The qualitative change is from the old security that meant only military affairs in a limited sense. This has lost meaning and instead means security in a broad sense, including refugee and minority problems, societal insecurity, and ecological problems. Thus security is related to the whole of society, so called human security. Baltic Sea cooperation based on Nordic multiple cooperation, that is in the social, legal, cultural and communication fields, can cope with security in a broad sense, and bring security to the region.<br>On the other hand, as the Treaty of Maastricht shows, the EU has moved into common diplomacy and security policies which nation-states previously monopolized, and the meanings of state and territory are being eroded by the EU. The rearrangements of the EU's role and each nation's role gives new significance to sub-regional cooperation. particulary Baltic Sea cooperation, between East and West.<br>In these senses, even though Baltic Sea cooperation is a very young and small attempt, it can be an important sub-regional approach to European security, as the nation-state system enters a new stage.