Geopolitics in Contemporary Europe. Analysis of Incipient Territorial Dispute

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1.0, University of Bath, language: English, abstract: This essay tries to outline incipient geopolitical conflicts in and beyond contemporary Europe, which might change its security perceptions, strategies and aspirations permanently. The attention of this essay is focused on two territorial challenges beyond European borders with direct effect upon its security. The first one deals with the Arctic Zone and the geopolitical disputes between its neighbouring states. The second one concerns the deepening securitization of outer space and its impact on the European sphere.

Contemporary Europe faces new emerging territorial challenges, which are not located inside Europe but in its geographical periphery and beyond. Various territorial conflicts, in particular those between successor states of the former Soviet Union (SU) or former Yugoslavia, were present throughout the 1990s and sometimes even resolved only recently, such as the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia in summer 2010. Nevertheless, these are not the only territorial conflicts affecting the European security structure.

Territory is an important security issue encased in geostrategic politics in Europe as well as in world affairs and has been broadly examined and assessed by scholars. In modern geopolitical analyses the emphasis is not 'classical understanding of spatial borders and territory of a nation-state, but more about transcending these borders. The driving force of this school of thought is to understand why and how states in world politics aim to secure territory beyond their own borders. This recent development matters to Europe as much as it does to the US, Russia and other nations in international relations. And by far, this is an issue related to individual, regional and collective security identity.