Geopolitics of the Kaliningrad Exclave and Enclave: Russian and EU Perspectives

Two U.S. political geographers examine a range of geopolitical issues associated with the shifting sovereignty of Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast (a part of the former German province of East Prussia) during the 20th century, as well as the region's evolving geopolitical status as a consequence of the European Union's enlargement to embrace Poland and Lithuania. They argue that Kaliningrad today can be considered a "double" borderland, situated simultaneously on the European Union's border with Russia as well as physically separated from Russia, its home country, by the surrounding land boundaries of EU states. Although technically neither an exclave nor an enclave, they posit that in many ways it resembles both, and as such presents a unique set of problems for economic development and interstate relations.     

European Union at the Crossroads: A Framing Comment

In a framing comment embracing the preceding four papers devoted to the enlargement of the European Union in 2004, a prominent American geographer reviews some of the major problems confronting the European continent. The paper, which begins with the author's view of Europe's dilemma in late 2006, covers a number of geographic implications of the May 2004 expansion. Noted are Russia's overland access to Kaliningrad, the addition of ca. 8 million underprivileged Roma (presently the Union's largest minority population), the potentially divisive new boundary with Russia, the future candidate states emerging from the former Yugoslavia, the prospects of Ukraine's possible membership, and the challenge of Turkey's quest for admission to the EU. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: F02, F20, P20. 2 figures, 34 references.     

Networks of engagement: electronic communication and grassroots environmental activism in Kaliningrad

This paper contributes to a discussion on networks as political spaces by examining the work of an environmental activist group in Kaliningrad, Russia. Drawing from geographic work on communication and from literature on organizational structure and communication technology provides a useful means of understanding and conceptualizing computer networks from a social science perspective. The case study of grassroots activism illustrates how computer-based communication may support a unique space of political activity. Electronic mail (e-mail) communication can be a channel through which activists may overcome the constraints of location as an information container in order to create spaces of interaction and action appropriate to their political agenda. This case study is an example where organization members use e-mail communication to connect their activities, information sources and collaborative partners at different scales to create a viable space for environmental activism and information distribution within a shifting political context.