This book is the first comprehensive study of how and why the European Union has enlarged to become northern Europe's leading power.

Pami Aalto presents a new approach to the under-theorized field of EU foreign policy studies, showing how, since 1990, the EU has enlarged to include Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, and also incorporated the former East Germany. He also examines how this northern expansion has led the EU to reflect on relations with Russia and its north-western regions.

This unique study includes:

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This work examines the construction of post-Soviet political space, geopolitical discourses and boundaries in Estonia.

Making use of innovative methodological solutions such as Q-methodology, its analysis includes in-depth interviews that elucidate a variety of issues through human experience and subjective perception, such as Estonian-Russian border disputes of the 1990s, inter-ethnic issues and national integration and security.
As Estonia is one of the frontline EU accession countries and is queuing for membership of NATO, the book raises broad questions of post-Soviet...

Presenting International Studies as a wide, plural and inherently interdisciplinary field of research, this book shows its links with philosophy, peace research, history, geography, globalization studies, international political economy, political psychology, sociology and social theory, linguistics, strategic or war studies and anthropology.