Diving into discussion about BSR geopolitics - and safety & security issues
The latest Baltic Rim Economies (BRE) focused on geopolitics, but it also serves almost like a prologue for the coming Baltic Sea Region Forum. It is difficult to separate geopolitics from the extremely topical issues of safety, security, and energy in the Baltic Sea region.
“For most of the Baltic Sea region, geopolitics has not “returned” – it never left” says Keir Giles, Serior Consulting Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House, in his interesting article “Baltic rim states as leaders in geopolitics”. Many other writers ponder the changing security environment of the Baltic Sea region. Geopolitics and energy issues have intertwined during the last year more than ever. This theme is further studied in the article “Geopolitics of energy and energy transition anno 2023” by David Criekemans, Associate Professor in International Politics, University of Antwerp. Ways to step forward is presented in the article “Lithuania: Ahead of the curve in energy independence from Russia” by Post-Doctoral Researchers Andris Banka and Mary Keogh, Interdisciplinary Centre for Baltic Sea Region Research, Germany, and the article “The great reshuffling of the gas market” by Reinis Āboltinš, Senior Energy Market Analyst, Public Utilities Commission, Latvia.
There are plenty more approaches to these themes in the BRE publication and the discussion continues in the Baltic Sea Region Forum in June 15 in Turku. The discussion panels are titled: Panel 1 “Changing security environment in the Northern Europe”, Panel 2 “Securing and maintaining critical energy supply and infrastructure in the Baltic Sea Region” and Panel 3 “Combating Cross-border crime”.
More about the Baltic Sea Region Forum and the registration page: Baltic Sea Region Forum 2023 (centrumbalticum.org).
