The Baltic Sea region was and partly still is politically quite diverse and, therefore, a highly interesting region to study. An organization to coordinate the intergovernmental collaboration of bordering states is the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS). CBSS was founded in the early 1990s due to the transformation of the Baltic Sea economic area since the end of the East-West conflict, i.e., after several decades of economic and social isolation of the former Soviet Union states from their neighbors. In their contemporary work, CBSS addresses three priority areas of the European Union: Regional Identity, Safe & Secure Region, and Sustainable & Prosperous Region. Especially the area of security is a subject of intense discussions, not only because Russia withdrew its membership after being suspended earlier this year due to its aggression against Ukraine, but also because the area was hit as any other part of the world by the pandemic. In this course, we will provide help to CBSS in developing a platform for discussing crisis communication. Such a platform can have the form of, for example, a workshop, a roundtable, or similar formats. In this course, we will learn about political crisis communication, policy advising, and the work and function of CBSS.
Suggested reading:
Ekengren, M. (2018). A return to geopolitics? The future of the security community in the Baltic Sea Region. Global Affairs, 4(4-5), 503-519.
- Lehrende/r: Nina Springer