Geopolitics of 'the Lands in Between': alliance politics, energy security and historical memory in the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine

Module Title: Geopolitics of 'the Lands in Between': alliance politics, energy security and historical memory in the Baltic states, Poland, Belarus and Ukraine

Module Leader: Dr Donatas Kupčiūnas 

Overview:  

Russian invasion of Ukraine put a spotlight on the curious region, stretching from the Baltic to the Black sea, which had been, in different periods, thought of as Europe’s periphery, buffer, barrier or cordon sanitaire. From the fourteenth century onwards, the region had shared deeply interconnected history, most of which was about geopolitics. The aim of this course is to help students orient themselves in the geopolitics, both material and ideational, of this increasingly important area. The course consists of three modules of two lectures, which feed back into each other:

• Module of Alliance Politics will analyse the projects of bilateral or multilateral security cooperation that had been historically attempted or implemented in the region, from Jagiellonian dynasty to CIS and (post-)NATO, with particular emphasis on the drivers of divergence and convergence in the region;
• Module of Energy Security will tackle the complex web of oil, gas and electricity flows in the area which links east and west, addressing the latest challenges posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine;
• Module of Historical Memory will study this important and often overlooked ideational component of geopolitics, which shapes the other two.