Suchergebnisse

The article provides an analysis of political party system of the Republic of Estonia in the mid-2010s. The analysis is based on the works of Moris Duverger. As one might expect, the establishment of proportionate electoral system in Estonia has resulted in the formation of a multi-party system, in which no single party dominates in the Parliament even in a short run. The article demonstrates that though the Estonian political party system develops in line with the tendencies typical of political party systems of most European countries, some of its elements are more common to post-communist countries. It indicates that the political party system in Estonia has stabilized throughout the past decade. Today, five sixths of voters support one of the four main political parties. A minority of voters does not consider any of the four dominant parties as a representative of their interests; thus, they vote for parties that were previously represented in the Parliament. This allowed the two minor political parties to pass into the Parliament at the 2015 elections: the Estonian Conservative People's Party, and Free Party. In the long run the minor parties will be able to keep parliamentary seats depending on their ability to build coalitions, either with the three governing parties the Reform Party, the Pro Patria and Republic Union, and the Social-Democratic Party, or with opposition Centre Party. The article considers the impact of the split in the Estonian society between ethnic Estonians and Russophonic people on the political party system. It demonstrates that the majority of Russophonic voters in Estonia support the Centre Party, every major political party in the country has its Russophonic voters, while Estonian United Left Party, which promotes itself as a particular representative of the country's Russophonic minority, remains a marginal political force.

This author uses regionalism as a theoretical framework for analyzing the foreign policy of the Russian Federation towards the Republic of Estonia. Regionalism is interpreted as a situation, when a political leader's beliefs change depending on what region of the world is considered. Leaders of great powers often assume that, for example, small European countries are subject to a treatment different from that of small Middle Eastern countries. The method of operational coding is employed to identify the impact of the regional approach on the beliefs of political leaders. The author comes to the conclusion that Russia's policy towards Estonia largely depends on Russia's policy towards the regions which the Russian elite relate Estonia to the Baltic States, Northern Europe, and Europe as a whole. The results of the study can further the understanding of Russia's policy towards Estonia both in Russia and abroad. Lack of understanding sometimes results in sharing the views of radical Estonian politicians who claim that Russia's policy towards Estonia is unpredictable and thus poses a threat to security and stability in Europe.

The article provides an analysis of political party system of the Republic of Estonia in the mid-2010s. The analysis is based on the works of Moris Duverger. As one might expect, the establishment of proportionate electoral system in Estonia has resulted in the formation of a multi-party system, in which no single party dominates in the parliament even in a short run. The article demonstrates that though Estonian political party system develops in line with the tendencies typical to political party systems of most European countries, some of its elements are more common to postcommunist countries. It indicates that the political party system in Estonia has stabilized throughout the past decade. Today, five sixths of voters support one of the four main political parties. A minority of voters does not consider any of the four dominant parties as a representative of their interests; thus, they vote for parties that had not been previously represented in the parliament. This allowed for two minor political parties to pass into the parliament at 2015 elections: the Estonian Conservative People's Party, and Free Party. In the long run the minor parties will be able to keep parliamentary seats depending on their ability to build coalitions, either with the three governing parties - Reform Party, Pro Patria and Republic Union, and Social-Democratic Party, or with opposition Centre Party. The article considers the impact of the split in the Estonian society between ethnic Estonians and Russophonic people on political party system. It demonstrates that the majority of Russophonic voters in Estonia support the Centre Party, every major political party in the country has its Russophonic voters, while Estonian United Left Party, which promotes itself as a particular representative of the country's Russophonic minority, remains a marginal political force.

This article shows why the non-existent political dialogue between Russia and Estonia will hardly develop in the next five years and why Estonia can lose its significance for the Russian foreign policy rhetoric and Russian mass media. This conclusion is drawn from a medium-term forecast about the changing role of Estonia in Russian foreign policy. The forecast is based on the scenario methodology, which suggests that the modern means of political forecasting make it possible to make conclusions not about the future states of political phenomena, but rather about the trends of current states, which are called scenarios. The article describes the four possible scenarios of changes in the role of Estonia in Russian foreign policy that are evaluated from the perspective of the development of Russian-Estonian relations and factors affecting the probability of each scenario. It is shown that any change in the role of Estonia in Russian foreign policy depends not only on the specific actions of the Estonian elite, for example their readiness to change their position on the participation of Russian-speaking population in the democratic decision-making process or the evaluation of controversial events of the past, but also on the meaning that will be attached to these actions by the Russian elite.

This article is based on a comparative analysis of Russia and US's experience of participation in international cooperation in the field of trans-boundary water management. The author showcases the work of Russian-Estonian Commission for Protection and Rational Use of Trans-Boundary Waters and the US-Canadian International Joint Commission. The Russian-Estonian Commission works in accordance with the principle of intergovernmentalism, whereas transnationalism is the founding principle of the International Joint Commission in North America. Though the Russian-Estonian Commission is more efficient in water quality improvement in its area of responsibility, it is early still to claim that intergovernmental cooperation is more effective than transnational cooperation. However, it gives a reason to question the conclusions of the proponents of transnationalism in the international relations theory, who claim that the latter is more efficient. Practical significance of this paper is in the proposed recommendations for further modernization of international cooperation in the field of trans-boundary water management.

This author uses regionalism as a theoretical framework for analyzing the foreign policy of the Russian Federation towards the Republic of Estonia. Regionalism is interpreted as a situation, when a political leader's beliefs change depending on what region of the world is considered. Leaders of great powers often assume that, for example, small European countries are subject to a treatment different from that of small Middle Eastern countries. The method of operational coding is employed to identify the impact of the regional approach on the beliefs of political leaders. The author comes to the conclusion that Russia's policy towards Estonia largely depends on Russia's policy towards the regions which the Russian elite relate Estonia to — the Baltic States, Northern Europe, and Europe as a whole. The results of the study can further the understanding of Russia's policy towards Estonia both in Russia and abroad. Lack of understanding sometimes results in sharing the views of radical Estonian politicians who claim that Russia's policy towards Estonia is unpredictable and thus poses a threat to security and stability in Europe.

This article contributes to the discussion
within the "Towards the Common Past" international
academic network bringing together
scholars from Russia, the Baltic States and the
Nordic countries. It assesses the relationship
between globalization and historical memory,
thus contributing to the discussion on globalization
and the roles and applications of history.
On the basis of an analysis of academic
discourses on globalization and historical
memory, the author arrives at two conclusions.
On the one hand, the proponents of
globalization use historical memory as one of
their arguments: they claim that the history of
globalization in international relations
stretches back to the 19th century, thus globalization
is an irreversible process. On the other
hand, globalization attaches international significance
to historical events that were earlier
considered as being of local importance. The
author proves the latter statement through
comparing Russian and Estonian discourses
on the relationship between the events which
took place in Tallinn in September 1944 and
April 2007. Highlighting the differences between
the two discourses may help Russian
scholars understand the reasons behind the
political decisions made by the Estonian authorities
in April 2007. It accounts for the
practical significance of the research conducted,
since one of the most important objectives
of international relations as a discipline is not
to explain what decision would have been the
most appropriate in the given situation, but to
further the understanding of the reasons behind
the actually made decision. The author
expresses his gratitude to his counterparts
from St. Petersburg State University and the
Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, as
well as those from the Universities of Lund
(Sweden), Tampere (Finland), and Tartu (Estonia)
for their comments on the earlier versions
of the article. At the same time, the author
alone bears all the responsibility for the
conclusions drawn in the article.

This article focuses on Latvian contribution to European security, which, for the purposes of this study, is understood as a territorial system of regional security. Such system is a combination of interconnected institutions with Latvian participation operating in the field of security, Latvian cooperation with other European countries in the field of security, and the European perception of major security challenges and threats (that Latvia may or may not agree with). A systemic approach to studying the role of Latvia in the territorial system of European security requires a solid theoretical framework. The theories of international relations discussed in this article fall into two categories: those where territorial security systems are viewed as a product of external factors, and those that focus on internal regional factors. In this article, the authors rely on a variety of methods, including those that are characteristic of classical theories of international relations (such as realism and liberalism), and those employed in social constructivism studies. It is concluded that Latvian cooperation with institutions and countries of the territorial system of European security is rather limited, which indicates either a lack of the country's integration into the system or a crisis of the system itself. An important result of the study is the validation of a systemic approach to studying regional security systems. This angle proves particularly useful in identifying crises of territorial systems of regional security in various regions of the world.

The article describes the place of St Peters-burg in international cooperation in the Baltic Sea region and the role of the Baltic region as one of the priorities of the international relations of the city. The authors show continual attention of Saint-Petersburg to developing international relations in the Baltic Sea region. The article indicates one of the most important areas of inter-national cooperation – the participation of the city in the renewed Northern Dimension policy.

The article revisits the negotiations on NORDEK, a Nordic Economic Area, held by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 1968–1970. Finland, which initially took active part in the negotiations, later reversed its position under pressure from the Soviet Union as well as for other reasons. Four remaining Nordic countries refused to pursue a Nordic Economic Area without Finland for multiple reasons, of which one was solidarity with Finland. This article presents multiple game models, of which some reflect the actual outcome of the NORDEK negotiations, i. e., their failure, while others reflect hypothetical outcomes of the negotiations, such as emergence of a NORDEK of four without Finland. Those models allow concluding on the main factors causing Nordic solidarity, for which the NORDEK negotiations were a testing ground, and which had been the defining feature of regional politics in the European North during fifty years following the failure of the negotiations. First, domestic uncertainty about the issue debated by multiple nations contributes to greater solidarity among those nations. Second, majority's focus on their absolute gains during international negotiations contributes to greater solidarity among negotiating nations. Third, relative equality among negotiating nations does not have any influence on solidarity among them. The latter conclusion supports the theoretical assumption that that organic solidarity (solidarity among different) is as possible as is mechanical solidarity (solidarity of similar).