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Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement
Abstract
This paper summarizes the results of the seminar “Geopolitical Security of Russia: Remarks on the Problem Statement”, held on August 26, 2022, at the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Kaliningrad. During the seminar, the Institute of Geopolitical and Regional Studies of the university announced an initiative to devise a system of monitoring the geopolitical (regional) security of Russia. The debate centred around the development of a conceptual framework and a geopolitical security model as a prerequisite for the system. The discussion also covered other relevant issues, including the definition of geopolitical security and geopolitical space as well as the types of geopolitical threats and vulnerabilities. Another topic on the agenda was the analysis of theoretical approaches applicable to monitoring the geopolitical security in Russia. A constructivist approach based on discursive practices was viewed as the most promising for tracking changes in geopolitical threats. In this work, the emphasis should be placed on regional issues, i. e. the situation in particular regions. Other promising avenues for further research are the operationalization of relevant concepts and the development of a set of indicators of geopolitical threats and vulnerabilities, which Russia has already faced and may face in the future.
... There are two avenues to mitigate the emerging problems and threats -the developments extensively explored and systematised in the literature, including by Russian social geographers [3][4][5]. The first is the formation of a powerful autonomous Russian economy. ...
... Ranking 51 st on the Human Development Index, Russia outstrips by far almost all of its friendly Eurasian partners. 4 Yet, there is an urgent need to expand the country's potential in research and technology. In 2022, Russia ranked 47 th in the Global Innovation Index, while China, Turkey and India scored 1 higher: 11 th , 37 th and 40 th , respectively. ...
Contemporary Russia’s spatial development is markedly affected by profound geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts, progressively more visible in terms of magnitude and repercussions. For Russia, the positive impact of these changes has become increasingly linked to the emergence of the Greater Eurasia macro-structure. This article aims to develop a contemporary conceptual approach to Greater Eurasia as a socio-geographical mega-structure given Russia’s opposition to the collective West. Additionally, it seeks to identify, using this approach, the strategic interests, opportunities and limitations of Russia’s spatial dynamics on the path towards Eurasian continentalism, which promotes transboundary cooperation and mutually supportive co-development of Eurasian states. The focus of this contribution is on the most crucial contemporary trends and principal contradictions in the transformation of the Russian space. The study provides a picture of the framework of ‘greater’ Eurasian integration, emphasising its connection to intensifying interregional and inter-municipal interactions. A rationale is outlined for shifting the country’s economic activity towards the east and north, with priorities identified given the inertia of spatial processes and the growing significance of Siberia in the Russian space. The potential and efficiency of prolonging the ‘Moscow-centric’ arrangement of the Russian space are assessed from the perspective of ensuring the multidirectional development of the latter. Special attention is paid to the ‘municipalisation’ of approaches to the strategic planning of Russia’s spatial development in the context of Eurasian continental integration.
... For the establishment of new vectors of Russia's geopolitical and geo-economic development, the tracking of the dynamics of geopolitical threats and the creation of a system for monitoring the geopolitical (regional) security of Russia are of paramount importance [29]. ...
This study examines the features, limitations and development prospects of three Russian territories bordering the Baltic Sea — St. Petersburg, and the Leningrad, and Kaliningrad region — amid the sharply heightened confrontation between Russia and the West, which has affected the Baltic region. The time frame spanning from 2014 to 2023 was chosen for the study. This period encompasses the sanctions imposed by Western countries and their associations, primarily the EU, in response to the return of Crimea and Sevastopol to Russia, and extends up to the present day, when the relations between Russia and the West, as many experts and politicians have emphasised, have reached a critical point and may require substantial changes in the global order, including at macro-regional levels, for a return to what was once considered ‘bbusiness as usual’. The study examines the development level and dynamics in the three regions, alongside their economic security. Another focus is on foreign policy and a geopolitical typology of the Baltic region states. The article investigates the impact of a changed geopolitical landscape on cross-border cooperation, the restructuring of foreign trade relations in Russia’s three Baltic regions, and the geopolitical and military factors influencing the development and security of these territories. Based on the findings, several suggestions are provided to promote the ongoing growth of Russia’s Baltic regions and enhance their economic and military security.
The article presents an analysis of contemporary British military-political strategy in the Baltic region. Since 2014, there has been a notable increase in British presence in the area, leading to multiple security risks for Russia, particularly since 2022. This is due to the fact that the UK has increasingly linked its national security threats to Russia’s policy towards Ukraine, as well as in the Black Sea and Baltic regions. By focusing on Russia’s positions in the Baltic and Black Sea regions, the UK has defined its security priorities, explicitly connecting them to countering “threats from Russia and preventing Russia from gaining strategic advantages as a result of the situation in Ukraine,” as clearly stated in the 2023 Security Review. It is no coincidence that British military strategists have started emphasizing the interconnectedness of the Baltic and Black Sea regions, as well as the Baltic and Arctic regions, highlighting the necessity of ensuring security in one part by addressing security challenges in others —primarily by limiting Russia’s influence. Through an analysis of key British security documents within the framework of the regional security complex theory, the author demonstrates how the Baltic Sea region has become a crucial link for British military strategists, connecting the Far North and Eastern Europe. The aim of the article is to determine how the UK’s security interests are connected to and pursued through its interactions with the Baltic Sea region countries. To achieve this, the following research objectives have been set: to analyse the conceptual and strategic goals of the UK in the field of security and the implementation of its national interests; to outline the role and significance of the Baltic Sea region within the UK’s broader international security strategy; and to identify specific tactical approaches employed by the UK to advance its national interests through cooperation with NATO countries in the region.
In this article, we present the results of our study into the contribution of geography to modern geopolitics in Russia. We stress the interdisciplinary nature of geopolitical studies and identify ensuing problems. Using content analysis of the eLIBRARY bibliography database and Elsevier’s abstract and citation database Scopus, we conclude that geography has considerably affected the development of modern geopolitics in Russia. The contribution of geographers is rather modest considering the number of PhD theses and research publications. However, it becomes more visible when textbooks only are taken into account. Geographical studies are an indispensable part of geopolitical research, which we identified using the object-subject criteria reflecting the effect that properties of territories have on the policies of states located within them. This relates to marine geopolitics, ethnic geopolitics, geoeconomics, ecopolitics, political geoconflict studies, and mediageopolitics. We consider geopolitics and ethnic geopolitics to be priority areas of geographical and geopolitical studies. Geography plays a major role in the comprehensive geopolitical studies into territories of different size. Geopolitics of post-Soviet space, geopolitics of Russia, domestic geopolitics, and critical geopolitics examine the combined effect of the properties of territories on the policies of states implemented in them. We stress that most geographical and geopolitical works focus on analysing the geopolitical location of territories, the geopolitical interests of states, and the identification of mechanisms behind the geopolitical vision of the population.
The research is focused on several key problems in the system of international relations influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is shown that the events caused by it and broadly identified as a coronacrisis have a direct impact on the world economic contradictions (pandenomica) and political ones, including the sphere of security. These particular aspects are chosen as the main objects of the research. The author contends that the factor of the pandemic has sharpened the competition between regional and global players and has increased the role of a nation- state. In the conditions of transregional deglobalisation, regionalism and “protectionism 2.0” get stronger under the banners of “strategic vulnerability” and “economic sovereignty”. A further weakening of multilateral international institutions continues. The EU endeavours to secure competitive advantages on the basis of relocalisation, industrial and digital policies and the Green Deal. The article highlights the deterioration in the relations among Russia, the US, the EU and China, the unfolding decoupling between Washington and its European allies, which stimulates the idea of the EU strategic autonomy. An urgent need for the deconfliction in Russia – NATO interaction is stated.
The paper analyzes the problems encountered during elaboration of the spatial development strategy of the Russian Federation and reducing the effectiveness of state policy in this area. A significant improvement in the quality of governing over spatial development sphere requires solving a number of issues, including setting up the statistical foundation; publishing the statistical data on federal and regional budgets and improving its transparency; establishment of official methods of defining urban agglomeration; increasing the quality of municipal statistics as a whole. Several issues require extensive expert discussion. Among them are mostly those concerning macroregions: how important is decreasing territorial disparities at the level of macroregions; what is the point of defining macroregions and creating the strategies of their socio-economic development; how fast can the difference between regions grow as long as the less developed regions maintain high rates of development. At the federal level, there is a prevalent desire to make decisions ‘from above’ ignoring development ‘from below’. One example of such attitude are the perspective economic specializations of the regions. This issue should be solved in the framework of state investment policy, during decision-making on providing state support to investment projects in certain territories
This paper explores the relationship between geopolitics and security in post Second World War American political discourse. Geopolitics is one of four security discourses (the others being sovietology, strategy and the realist approach in international relations) which American ‘security intellectuals’ have drawn on in constructing the ‘Soviet threat’, America's predominant ‘Other’ in the last four decades. The ‘Soviet threat’ is the rationale used in the US foreign policy of containment militarism designed ultimately to ensure US national security. Using a formulation of geopolitics in terms of discourse this paper widens the conventional understanding of geopolitics to show how geopolitical conceptions operate ideologically. Focusing on the practices of the discourses of security shows that a broader understanding of geopolitics in terms of discourse reveals a persistence of geopolitical thinking in US discussions of security. A final section briefly suggests how the concept of security can be reformulated and outlines the role of a critical geopolitics in revealing how geopolitical discourse operates.
We present a news-based measure of adverse geopolitical events and associated risks. The geopolitical risk (GPR) index spikes around the two world wars, at the beginning of the Korean War, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and after 9/11. Higher geopolitical risk foreshadows lower investment and employment and is associated with higher disaster probability and larger downside risks. The adverse consequences of the GPR index are driven by both the threat and the realization of adverse geopolitical events. We complement our aggregate measures with industry- and firm-level indicators of geopolitical risk. Investment drops more in industries that are exposed to aggregate geopolitical risk. Higher firm-level geopolitical risk is associated with lower firm-level investment. (JEL C43, E32, F51, F52, G31, H56, N40)
This 2003 book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.
Geography, geopolitics and geographical reasoning
The foundations of geography are also those of what we in France call Geopolitics. By this word, I mean any power rivalries on a given territory. It is therefore not only the influence of natural facts on the balance of power (what anglo-saxon specialists of international relations sometimes call geopolitics), but also that of the territorial dimension of these rivalries and of the localisation of the strengths in presence in an international context.
Geography is the knowledge and the reasoning that is used to conceive the complexities of the earthly space, on different levels of spatial analysis and in their interactions (local, national, worldwide) by taking into account the precise cartographic layout and the intersections of many spatial regions of differing sizes. The geographical territory is essential in geopolitics, with its physical features but also with the people that live there and the study of the powers they accept and those they rebel against for historical reasons that they keep believing in, also of the people’s fears and of the way they think of a more or less distant past and future. Therefore, taking in account the conflicting representation of a territory in the midst of a conflict is a major tool in geopolitics.
A case study, the israelo-palestinian conflict shows this relation between geographical and geopolitical reasoning.
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