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New Possibilities for the Northern Peripheral Regions in the Post-Cold War Era
regions, even though climate change is probably more of a risk than an opportunity for the global
economy, security and tourism (see e.g. Hall & Higham, 2005: 3–28).
In my analysis it seems that different aspects of the post-Cold War transition are influencing the
different kinds of frontier regions within the Barents Region. In Lapland especially, the collapse of
the Iron Curtain has been very influential. The border between Lapland and Russia is another kind
of border than that between Lapland and the Soviet Union had been. Social and economic relations
between the civil societies across borders are now possible. In the Sámi region decolonization has
been more important. The general decolonization and the emancipation of indigenous peoples in
the world mean possibilities for new kinds of political acts for the Sami People. In the Torne Valley
and the Bothian Arc the EU enlargement – as a part of the post-Cold War transition – has also
given possibilities for new kinds of political acts and speech in the Barents Region. Since the EU
membership of Finland and Sweden, the border that Sweden and Russia drew through the Torne
Valley in the year 1809 no longer determines lives as it did before. The people on both sides of the
border are now part of the same free market area.
The post-Cold War transition is reorganizing the space of the European North. Before, the main
determinants in the area were the distance and the borders of the states. Both of the determinants
separated the space in the frontier areas from other places and spaces in the world. The post-Cold
War transition is reorganizing the space in the frontiers. At the local level, the people in Lapland
have connected to – following the collapse of the Iron Curtain – the people on the other side of the
eastern border of the county. Following the Swedish and Finnish membership in the European
Union, the people in the Torne Valley especially have connected to the people on the western side
of the county of Lapland. At the global level – as Manuel Castells has described – the post-Cold War
transition is linked to the rise of the global network society. Lapland, the Torne Valley, the Sámi
region and the Bothnian Arc are also part of this global society. The indicators of a global network
society in the northern frontiers areas are for example international tourism, new technology and the
people that have adapted themselves to the new global culture both in respect to their work and
their free time.
References
Barents Euro-Arctic Region (2009). ―The Barents Euro-Arctic Region‖. Available from,
http://www.beac.st/?Deptid=25231
.
Buzan, B. (1991).
People, States and Fear. An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post-Cold War
Era.
Harvester: Wheatsheaf.
Castells, M. (2000).
End of Millennium
. Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Deutsch, K. (1988).
The Analysis of International Relations
. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall
International.