| Review of: | European Union and the Making of a Wider Northern Europe by P. Aalto |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Clive Archer |
| Reviewed in: | Journal of Common Market Studies |
| Date accepted online: | 02/11/2007 |
| Published in print: | Volume 45, Issue 2, Pages 515-533 |
Book Reviews
This is a fresh look at the role of the European Union in northern Europe, specifically the Baltic region where old EU members (Germany and Denmark), newer members (Sweden and Finland) and new members (the three Baltic states and Poland) meet Russia and in one case (the enclave of Kaliningrad) surround part of it.
This freshness partly arises from the 2004 enlargement to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and partly through the methodology of the study. Aalto, with the benefit of hindsight, claims that the ability of the EU to wield power in northern Europe has been underestimated, especially after the 2004 enlargement. Indeed, he considers that developing EU-Russian and EU-Baltic relations mean that the Union has become 'the main geopolitical subject of northern Europe' (p. 3). He thinks that the EU has developed distinct identities and interests with regard to the ordering of the region, closing the capabilities-expectations gap there 'quite rapidly' (p. 9). The author breaks down the 'geopolitical subjectivity' of the EU in the area into four main components, the time and space aspects of identity and the geo-policy and geo-strategy elements of interests. It is with these factors that he analyses the EU interplay with the three Baltic states and with Russia in northern Europe. Part of the methodology that he uses is 'Q methodology', which utilizes the subjective perceptions of a small group of policy makers and EU observers in the Baltic states and Kaliningrad to draw conclusions about the EU-northern Europe relationship more broadly. Aalto prefers the metaphor of concentric circles to typify this relationship.
This study can be broadly seen as constructivist in approach (p. 11), but does not ignore the interest element. As well as providing an insightful account of the EU-Russian relationship, it deals with the Union's relations with each of the three Baltic states rather than herding them together. Aalto has some interesting thoughts on the development of EU foreign policy and his work is a useful addition to the corpus of knowledge in that area. It will also be an essential book for those interested in northern Europe, the Nordic states and the Baltic Sea region.