Marko Lehti - Böcker

In recent years debates about the nature and future of the West have been high on the political agenda. Prognoses of the West’s imminent demise have been countered by those arguing for its continued relevance, or those arguing that while the West will survive its nature, and the balance of power between its constituent units, is transforming.This book argues that understanding contemporary developments requires subjecting the very idea of the West to critical scrutiny and in particular asking what kind of concept it actually is. Locating the West as a discursive concept the book argues attempts to save, fix or reclaim the meaning of the West are illustrative of political agendas rather than indicative of accurate claims about the essential nature of the West. In contrast, the book argues that as a concept the West is impregnated with various discursive legacies, the most embedded of which are those of a civilisational, modern and political West. However, while attempts to define the West’s essence are therefore doomed to fail, given the concept’s historical and discursive flexibility, such attempts reaffirm the legitimising role which claims to the West continue to perform.Beyond this, the book challenges traditional genealogies of the West, which overwhelmingly depict the West as an inside-out concept. In contrast, the book argues that historically outsiders have played an important role in defining the nature of the West and constituting it as a political subject; processes that remain evident today.This book will particularly interest students of critical security studies, critical geopolitics, European politics, American politics and IR theory.

The Baltic–Russian debates on the past have become a hot spot of European memory politics. Violent protests and international tensions accompanying the removal of the "Bronze Soldier" monument, which commemorated the Soviet liberation of Tallinn in 1944, from the city centre in April 2007 have demonstrated the political impact that contested sites of memory may still reveal. In this publication, collective memories that are related to major traits of the 20th century in North Eastern Europe – the Holocaust, Nazi and Soviet occupation and (re-)emerging nationalisms – are examined through a prism of different approaches. They comprise reflections on national templates of collective memory, the political use of history, cultural and political aspects of war memorials, and recent discourses on the Holocaust. Furthermore, places of memory in architecture and urbanism are addressed and lead to the question of which prospects common, trans-national forms of memory may unfold.After decades of frozen forms of commemoration under Soviet hegemony, the Baltic case offers an interesting insight into collective memory and history politics and their linkage to current political and inter-ethnic relationships. The past seems to be remembered differently in the European peripheries than it is in its centre. Europe is diverse and so are its memories. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Baltic Studies.

The Baltic–Russian debates on the past have become a hot spot of European memory politics. Violent protests and international tensions accompanying the removal of the "Bronze Soldier" monument, which commemorated the Soviet liberation of Tallinn in 1944, from the city centre in April 2007 have demonstrated the political impact that contested sites of memory may still reveal. In this publication, collective memories that are related to major traits of the 20th century in North Eastern Europe – the Holocaust, Nazi and Soviet occupation and (re-)emerging nationalisms – are examined through a prism of different approaches. They comprise reflections on national templates of collective memory, the political use of history, cultural and political aspects of war memorials, and recent discourses on the Holocaust. Furthermore, places of memory in architecture and urbanism are addressed and lead to the question of which prospects common, trans-national forms of memory may unfold.After decades of frozen forms of commemoration under Soviet hegemony, the Baltic case offers an interesting insight into collective memory and history politics and their linkage to current political and inter-ethnic relationships. The past seems to be remembered differently in the European peripheries than it is in its centre. Europe is diverse and so are its memories. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Baltic Studies.

In recent years debates about the nature and future of the West have been high on the political agenda. Prognoses of the West’s imminent demise have been countered by those arguing for its continued relevance, or those arguing that while the West will survive its nature, and the balance of power between its constituent units, is transforming.This book argues that understanding contemporary developments requires subjecting the very idea of the West to critical scrutiny and in particular asking what kind of concept it actually is. Locating the West as a discursive concept the book argues attempts to save, fix or reclaim the meaning of the West are illustrative of political agendas rather than indicative of accurate claims about the essential nature of the West. In contrast, the book argues that as a concept the West is impregnated with various discursive legacies, the most embedded of which are those of a civilisational, modern and political West. However, while attempts to define the West’s essence are therefore doomed to fail, given the concept’s historical and discursive flexibility, such attempts reaffirm the legitimising role which claims to the West continue to perform.Beyond this, the book challenges traditional genealogies of the West, which overwhelmingly depict the West as an inside-out concept. In contrast, the book argues that historically outsiders have played an important role in defining the nature of the West and constituting it as a political subject; processes that remain evident today.This book will particularly interest students of critical security studies, critical geopolitics, European politics, American politics and IR theory.

This book explores historically and theoretically Nordic peace as a marker of identification, ontological (in)security and regional branding. It emphasizes how conceptions of Nordic peace have been translated into policy practices and how it has maintained its relevance over time.The book distinguishes between the Nordic region as a region of peace, a prime example of a Deutschian security community, and as a region for peace, cultivating the role of a global humanitarian norm promoter and peacebuilder, but also interrogating how these two understandings of Nordic peace have been mutually constitutive and interdependent. The book discusses the politics of ‘Nordic peace’, analyzing what the concept does and enables, and why it continues to endure and exert affective appeal. Furthermore, it considers contemporary challenges, not least connected to the implications of the war in Ukraine, but also the potential future opportunities facing ideas of Nordic peace as Nordic peace is refashioned, once again, towards a new regional and global context.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Peace Research, Nordic or Scandinavian Studies, History, Nationalism Studies, Critical Security Studies and International Relations.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book explores historically and theoretically Nordic peace as a marker of identification, ontological (in)security and regional branding. It emphasizes how conceptions of Nordic peace have been translated into policy practices and how it has maintained its relevance over time.The book distinguishes between the Nordic region as a region of peace, a prime example of a Deutschian security community, and as a region for peace, cultivating the role of a global humanitarian norm promoter and peacebuilder, but also interrogating how these two understandings of Nordic peace have been mutually constitutive and interdependent. The book discusses the politics of ‘Nordic peace’, analyzing what the concept does and enables, and why it continues to endure and exert affective appeal. Furthermore, it considers contemporary challenges, not least connected to the implications of the war in Ukraine, but also the potential future opportunities facing ideas of Nordic peace as Nordic peace is refashioned, once again, towards a new regional and global context.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Peace Research, Nordic or Scandinavian Studies, History, Nationalism Studies, Critical Security Studies and International Relations.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

The field of peacemaking is in turbulent change. In the 21st century, private peacemakers have become a central part of peace diplomacy and have appeared as flexible actors whose innovative thinking paves the way for reconsidering and reinventing old practices of mediation.

This volume explores the Western-led liberal order that is claimed to be in crisis. Simultaneously, the West still appears to be needed in order to imagine the global order by promoters of liberal peace as well as its opponents.

This volume explores the Western-led liberal order that is claimed to be in crisis. Simultaneously, the West still appears to be needed in order to imagine the global order by promoters of liberal peace as well as its opponents.