Kristi Raik - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kristi Raik

Research paper thumbnail of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, 2015

Ethnic diversity has a long history in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, yet the states are entrust... more Ethnic diversity has a long history in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, yet the states are entrusted to protect the interests of ethnic core nations rather than those of all residents. The official narrative of statehood in the Baltic states emphasizes the principle of state continuity from pre-Soviet republics to the present. In so doing, it entrenches inequality between the titular ethnic communities and small groups of “historical minorities” and those who settled in the country in the second half of the twentieth century, the “Russian-speaking minorities.” In Lithuania tensions focus on the visibility of the Polish-speaking community. Tensions and distrust between Baltic titular groups and Russian as well as Polish speakers require greater cooperation among ethnic communities and recognition of minority groups' links to their kin states. The lack of progress on accommodation and protection of the rights of nontitular communities should cause concern among NATO and EU countries. Keywords: conflict; ethnicity; identity politics; minorities; nationalism

Research paper thumbnail of Connectivity of the EU’s Eastern Partnership region: contestation between liberal and illiberal approaches

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

Research paper thumbnail of The security strategies of the US, China, Russia and the EU: Living in different worlds

Research paper thumbnail of The changing global order and its implications for the EU

The forms of global political transition contradict each other. The Western leadership of the wor... more The forms of global political transition contradict each other. The Western leadership of the world seems to be in decline, with the US political hegemony being challenged by the rise of China and other emerging powers, and with global power structures evolving towards multipolarity. At the same time, however, there are increasing signs of a diffusion of state power. It involves a growing group of non-state actors challenging state power in very different forms and different capacities. This report focuses on the axis of state power considered the most important in terms of its global implications: the relationship between the US and China. This relationship is studied with the aim of assessing how the mutual interdependencies are evolving, and what the goals of the two actors look like in respect of their own global role. The implications of this power transition in the key fields of global governance – also covering the simultaneous diffusion of power to non-state actors – forms a...

Research paper thumbnail of The security strategies of the US, China, Russia and the EU: Living in different worlds

Research paper thumbnail of The European External Action Service and national foreign ministries: convergence or divergence? Edited by Rosa Balfour, Caterina Carta and Kristi Raik: EU foreign policy through the lens of discourse analysis: making sense of diversity. Edited by Caterin

International Affairs, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood

CEPS Working Documents are published to give an indication of the work within various research pr... more CEPS Working Documents are published to give an indication of the work within various research programmes at CEPS and to diffuse relevant works from external experts in these fields. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which she is associated.

Research paper thumbnail of Between activeness and influence The contribution of new member states to EU policies towards the Eastern neighbours

Research paper thumbnail of Pioneers of a European Diplomatic System – EU Delegations in Moscow and Washington

See also http://www.fiia.fi/en/publication/415/pioneers\_of\_a\_european\_diplomatic\_system/ Since De... more See also http://www.fiia.fi/en/publication/415/pioneers_of_a_european_diplomatic_system/ Since December 2009, the European Union has been represented abroad by more than 130 delegations, which are an integral part of the new European External Action Service (EEAS). This paper explores the performance and potential of the delegations in contributing to a common EU foreign policy. The delegations have to strike the right balance between performing the functions of traditional diplomatic missions, while also representing the EU as a political entity that is more than an international organization, but less than a state. The delegations act as a bridge between nascent EU diplomacy and the national diplomacies of the member states. They are also microcosms that gather together under one roof different elements of the EU’s external relations, ranging from the Common Foreign and Security Policy to trade and aid, energy and migration. The delegations have been rather successful in their thr...

Research paper thumbnail of Democratic politics or the implementation of inevitabilities?: Estonia's democracy and integration into the European Union

ABSTRACT Diss. -- Turun yliopisto.

Research paper thumbnail of Change and Continuity: A Decade of Evolution of EU Foreign Policy and the Creation of the European External Action Service

Research paper thumbnail of Revisiting the Eu’s Democracy Promotion in the Eastern Neighbourhood

Research paper thumbnail of Finland turns humble as its economic outlook worsens

Over the past few years, when the EU (together with the IMF) has had to rescue several member sta... more Over the past few years, when the EU (together with the IMF) has had to rescue several member states from economic collapse, Finland has boasted with self-confidence. No longer. Finns have come back from their lakeside summer cottages to face grim figures about the economyStreets_of_Helsinki,_Finland,_Northern_Europe. While industrial production has returned to small growth in the Eurozone, fresh statistics place Finland at the bottom among EU countries with a 5.7 per cent drop in industrial output between June 2012 and June 2013. Confederation of Finnish Industries, the leading interest organisation of Finnish companies, sees the main reason in a creeping decrease of competitiveness over several years. Finland, it claims, is comparable to Italy these days – one can hope Italians will not be offended. The government is ringing the alarm bells and warning about painful structural reforms ahead.

Research paper thumbnail of Promoting Democracy through Civil Society: How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood. CEPS Working Documents No. 237, 1 February 2006

The European Union has successfully supported democratisation in its new Eastern member states an... more The European Union has successfully supported democratisation in its new Eastern member states and candidate countries. Now it needs to become more engaged in those post-communist countries where democratisation is incomplete or stalled. This study argues that civil society should be a more important priority of democracy promotion in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood and calls for a strategic and differentiated approach designed according to the stage of democratisation in the target country. The paper focuses on three countries that represent three types of cases in the eastern neighbourhood: Ukraine, which has become a ‘re-transition’ country after the Orange Revolution; Moldova, where we can observe a prolonged transition; and Belarus, an outright dictatorship. One of the well-known obstacles to enhancing the EU’s support to civil society in these countries is posed by the bureaucratic procedures of aid programmes. However, even if the rules were substantially reformed, it would st...

Research paper thumbnail of The Foreign and Security Policies of Estonia and Finland in the Context of the Ukraine Crisis

Research paper thumbnail of The EU and Mass Protests in the Neighbourhood: Models of Normative (In)action

Research paper thumbnail of East European Politics and Societies Kristi Raik Logics EU Accession of Central and Eastern European Countries : Democracy and Integration as Conflicting

Although the European Union (EU) has in many ways supported democratization in Central and Easter... more Although the European Union (EU) has in many ways supported democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, it has also imposed new constraints on the functioning of democracy. The article explores the indirect impact of EU integration on the Eastern applicant countries by exposing the underlying logic of enlargement and analyzing the implications of that logic for democratic politics. The empirical analysis focuses on the preaccession process of one of the new member states, Estonia, but it also examines the overall EU policy toward Eastern candidates, pointing to the limits of enlargement as a form of democracy promotion. It highlights that the principles and norms that dominated enlargement-most notably inevitability, speed, efficiency, and expertise-constrained democratic politics in the applicant countries and limited their EU accession to a narrow sphere of elites and experts. The author links the findings with the democratic deficit in the EU and draws some conclusions concerning future prospects of democracy in and democracy promotion by the enlarged EU.

Research paper thumbnail of The Northern European Member States

Foreign Policies of EU Member States

Research paper thumbnail of Resisting domestic and external pressure towards de-Europeanization of foreign policy? The case of Estonia

Journal of European Integration

ABSTRACT Up to 2019, Estonia’s EU policy and foreign policy were based on a strong domestic polit... more ABSTRACT Up to 2019, Estonia’s EU policy and foreign policy were based on a strong domestic political consensus. From April 2019 to January 2021, Estonia was led by a government coalition including a Eurosceptic populist party, which brought visible cracks to this consensus. The coalition agreement assured continuity in Estonia’s foreign and EU policies, but the statements of some representatives of the coalition repeatedly brought this into question. During the same period, Estonia was faced with external pressure to de-Europeanize: the change and volatility of US foreign policy under Donald Trump put Estonia in a very uncomfortable position, on the one hand, striving to maintain strong relations with its most important security ally, while on the other hand trying to resist the negative impact of Trump’s policies on the EU, NATO and multilateral cooperation. This article analyzes the drivers, indicators and consequences of the de-Europeanization of Estonian foreign policy, resulting from these internal and external pressures.

Research paper thumbnail of Not Yet Fit for the World: Piecemeal Buildup of EU Military, Cyber and Intelligence Assets

In the past decades, the EU has developed an increasingly broad, multi-sectoral set of foreign an... more In the past decades, the EU has developed an increasingly broad, multi-sectoral set of foreign and security policy instruments. All of these can be relevant in sustaining the EU’s crisis and conflict management efforts. While trying to create a more effective and integrated toolbox, the Union has faced a number of challenges. First, as the EU’s scope of activity and level of ambition have increased, the need to strengthen the “harder end” of instruments – including military, cyber and intelligence tools – has been widely acknowledged, but these remain weak. Second, with EU policies extending to areas where the Union’s resources and competencies are weak, the need to mobilise member states’ resources has become more important, but ensuring meaningful contributions from member states has proven difficult. Third, it has become an ever more complex task to connect the multiple sectors to each other to build a comprehensive policy.

Research paper thumbnail of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Nationalism, 2015

Ethnic diversity has a long history in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, yet the states are entrust... more Ethnic diversity has a long history in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, yet the states are entrusted to protect the interests of ethnic core nations rather than those of all residents. The official narrative of statehood in the Baltic states emphasizes the principle of state continuity from pre-Soviet republics to the present. In so doing, it entrenches inequality between the titular ethnic communities and small groups of “historical minorities” and those who settled in the country in the second half of the twentieth century, the “Russian-speaking minorities.” In Lithuania tensions focus on the visibility of the Polish-speaking community. Tensions and distrust between Baltic titular groups and Russian as well as Polish speakers require greater cooperation among ethnic communities and recognition of minority groups' links to their kin states. The lack of progress on accommodation and protection of the rights of nontitular communities should cause concern among NATO and EU countries. Keywords: conflict; ethnicity; identity politics; minorities; nationalism

Research paper thumbnail of Connectivity of the EU’s Eastern Partnership region: contestation between liberal and illiberal approaches

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

Research paper thumbnail of The security strategies of the US, China, Russia and the EU: Living in different worlds

Research paper thumbnail of The changing global order and its implications for the EU

The forms of global political transition contradict each other. The Western leadership of the wor... more The forms of global political transition contradict each other. The Western leadership of the world seems to be in decline, with the US political hegemony being challenged by the rise of China and other emerging powers, and with global power structures evolving towards multipolarity. At the same time, however, there are increasing signs of a diffusion of state power. It involves a growing group of non-state actors challenging state power in very different forms and different capacities. This report focuses on the axis of state power considered the most important in terms of its global implications: the relationship between the US and China. This relationship is studied with the aim of assessing how the mutual interdependencies are evolving, and what the goals of the two actors look like in respect of their own global role. The implications of this power transition in the key fields of global governance – also covering the simultaneous diffusion of power to non-state actors – forms a...

Research paper thumbnail of The security strategies of the US, China, Russia and the EU: Living in different worlds

Research paper thumbnail of The European External Action Service and national foreign ministries: convergence or divergence? Edited by Rosa Balfour, Caterina Carta and Kristi Raik: EU foreign policy through the lens of discourse analysis: making sense of diversity. Edited by Caterin

International Affairs, 2016

Research paper thumbnail of How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood

CEPS Working Documents are published to give an indication of the work within various research pr... more CEPS Working Documents are published to give an indication of the work within various research programmes at CEPS and to diffuse relevant works from external experts in these fields. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the author in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which she is associated.

Research paper thumbnail of Between activeness and influence The contribution of new member states to EU policies towards the Eastern neighbours

Research paper thumbnail of Pioneers of a European Diplomatic System – EU Delegations in Moscow and Washington

See also http://www.fiia.fi/en/publication/415/pioneers\_of\_a\_european\_diplomatic\_system/ Since De... more See also http://www.fiia.fi/en/publication/415/pioneers_of_a_european_diplomatic_system/ Since December 2009, the European Union has been represented abroad by more than 130 delegations, which are an integral part of the new European External Action Service (EEAS). This paper explores the performance and potential of the delegations in contributing to a common EU foreign policy. The delegations have to strike the right balance between performing the functions of traditional diplomatic missions, while also representing the EU as a political entity that is more than an international organization, but less than a state. The delegations act as a bridge between nascent EU diplomacy and the national diplomacies of the member states. They are also microcosms that gather together under one roof different elements of the EU’s external relations, ranging from the Common Foreign and Security Policy to trade and aid, energy and migration. The delegations have been rather successful in their thr...

Research paper thumbnail of Democratic politics or the implementation of inevitabilities?: Estonia's democracy and integration into the European Union

ABSTRACT Diss. -- Turun yliopisto.

Research paper thumbnail of Change and Continuity: A Decade of Evolution of EU Foreign Policy and the Creation of the European External Action Service

Research paper thumbnail of Revisiting the Eu’s Democracy Promotion in the Eastern Neighbourhood

Research paper thumbnail of Finland turns humble as its economic outlook worsens

Over the past few years, when the EU (together with the IMF) has had to rescue several member sta... more Over the past few years, when the EU (together with the IMF) has had to rescue several member states from economic collapse, Finland has boasted with self-confidence. No longer. Finns have come back from their lakeside summer cottages to face grim figures about the economyStreets_of_Helsinki,_Finland,_Northern_Europe. While industrial production has returned to small growth in the Eurozone, fresh statistics place Finland at the bottom among EU countries with a 5.7 per cent drop in industrial output between June 2012 and June 2013. Confederation of Finnish Industries, the leading interest organisation of Finnish companies, sees the main reason in a creeping decrease of competitiveness over several years. Finland, it claims, is comparable to Italy these days – one can hope Italians will not be offended. The government is ringing the alarm bells and warning about painful structural reforms ahead.

Research paper thumbnail of Promoting Democracy through Civil Society: How to Step up the EU’s Policy towards the Eastern Neighbourhood. CEPS Working Documents No. 237, 1 February 2006

The European Union has successfully supported democratisation in its new Eastern member states an... more The European Union has successfully supported democratisation in its new Eastern member states and candidate countries. Now it needs to become more engaged in those post-communist countries where democratisation is incomplete or stalled. This study argues that civil society should be a more important priority of democracy promotion in the EU’s Eastern neighbourhood and calls for a strategic and differentiated approach designed according to the stage of democratisation in the target country. The paper focuses on three countries that represent three types of cases in the eastern neighbourhood: Ukraine, which has become a ‘re-transition’ country after the Orange Revolution; Moldova, where we can observe a prolonged transition; and Belarus, an outright dictatorship. One of the well-known obstacles to enhancing the EU’s support to civil society in these countries is posed by the bureaucratic procedures of aid programmes. However, even if the rules were substantially reformed, it would st...

Research paper thumbnail of The Foreign and Security Policies of Estonia and Finland in the Context of the Ukraine Crisis

Research paper thumbnail of The EU and Mass Protests in the Neighbourhood: Models of Normative (In)action

Research paper thumbnail of East European Politics and Societies Kristi Raik Logics EU Accession of Central and Eastern European Countries : Democracy and Integration as Conflicting

Although the European Union (EU) has in many ways supported democratization in Central and Easter... more Although the European Union (EU) has in many ways supported democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, it has also imposed new constraints on the functioning of democracy. The article explores the indirect impact of EU integration on the Eastern applicant countries by exposing the underlying logic of enlargement and analyzing the implications of that logic for democratic politics. The empirical analysis focuses on the preaccession process of one of the new member states, Estonia, but it also examines the overall EU policy toward Eastern candidates, pointing to the limits of enlargement as a form of democracy promotion. It highlights that the principles and norms that dominated enlargement-most notably inevitability, speed, efficiency, and expertise-constrained democratic politics in the applicant countries and limited their EU accession to a narrow sphere of elites and experts. The author links the findings with the democratic deficit in the EU and draws some conclusions concerning future prospects of democracy in and democracy promotion by the enlarged EU.

Research paper thumbnail of The Northern European Member States

Foreign Policies of EU Member States

Research paper thumbnail of Resisting domestic and external pressure towards de-Europeanization of foreign policy? The case of Estonia

Journal of European Integration

ABSTRACT Up to 2019, Estonia’s EU policy and foreign policy were based on a strong domestic polit... more ABSTRACT Up to 2019, Estonia’s EU policy and foreign policy were based on a strong domestic political consensus. From April 2019 to January 2021, Estonia was led by a government coalition including a Eurosceptic populist party, which brought visible cracks to this consensus. The coalition agreement assured continuity in Estonia’s foreign and EU policies, but the statements of some representatives of the coalition repeatedly brought this into question. During the same period, Estonia was faced with external pressure to de-Europeanize: the change and volatility of US foreign policy under Donald Trump put Estonia in a very uncomfortable position, on the one hand, striving to maintain strong relations with its most important security ally, while on the other hand trying to resist the negative impact of Trump’s policies on the EU, NATO and multilateral cooperation. This article analyzes the drivers, indicators and consequences of the de-Europeanization of Estonian foreign policy, resulting from these internal and external pressures.

Research paper thumbnail of Not Yet Fit for the World: Piecemeal Buildup of EU Military, Cyber and Intelligence Assets

In the past decades, the EU has developed an increasingly broad, multi-sectoral set of foreign an... more In the past decades, the EU has developed an increasingly broad, multi-sectoral set of foreign and security policy instruments. All of these can be relevant in sustaining the EU’s crisis and conflict management efforts. While trying to create a more effective and integrated toolbox, the Union has faced a number of challenges. First, as the EU’s scope of activity and level of ambition have increased, the need to strengthen the “harder end” of instruments – including military, cyber and intelligence tools – has been widely acknowledged, but these remain weak. Second, with EU policies extending to areas where the Union’s resources and competencies are weak, the need to mobilise member states’ resources has become more important, but ensuring meaningful contributions from member states has proven difficult. Third, it has become an ever more complex task to connect the multiple sectors to each other to build a comprehensive policy.