The Baltic Sea region in international relations of the twentieth century: The seminal nature of the interwar period

Abstract

The article addresses the idea and problems of political cooperation and integration of the Baltic Sea countries in the twentieth century from the point of view of a small nation. In the interwar period such cooperation between both old and new nations was virtually non-existent. Still, the second half of the 1920s became a sort of prediction of the direction in which the relationships between the small nations on the Baltic might develop when the region was not dominated by imperialist great power policies. The end of the twentieth century in this region differs radically from the first half of the century in both the former and the latter. Yet the developments of today signify the realization of the visions of that period.