Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review

With the dual enlargement of NATO and the EU to the Baltic States in 2004 the post-Cold War transition process in the Baltic Sea Region has begun to draw to a close. The article argues that this is posing questions for, and is likely to change, the character of cooperation within the region. During the 1990s it is argued regional cooperation was driven primarily by motivations of idealism and security, with one of the central elements of regional cooperation being its conceptualisation as a project of identity and subjectivity creation. With the transition process completed the key motivations behind this political project are becoming less important, with the result being that this idealistic element to regional cooperation is being replaced by more pragmatic, functionalist and self-interested aspects. However, whilst internally idealism, solidarity and internationalism are on the wane, it is argued these elements have not disappeared altogether but are increasingly becoming an accepted part of the international profile and identity of the region.