Master in Baltic Sea Region Studies

Study units

Lecture/Vorlesung (VL)
Lectures provide general knowledge or selected examples to highlight central questions.

Practice/Übung (UE)
Both academic methods and techniques of presenting academic material are highlighted during these sessions.

Introductory Seminar/Grundkurs (GK)
Introductory seminars provide core knowledge on academic methods, central questions and skills required for conducting academic study.

Advanced Seminar/Hauptseminar (HS)
Advanced seminars provide an opportunity to develop theoretical insight and to focus on particular aspects of the field, thus deepening the methodological and specific knowledge. The students also gain skills and knowledge required for a successful completion of the master's theses.

Colloquium
Central questions will be further reflected and discussed and topical themes will be analysed. Colloquiums may be offered to prepare students for the writing of their master's thesis or as a forum a for their work.

1st Trimester Courses
(January 13 - March 30, 2003)

Lecture (VL): Aspects on Nordic History, 2 SP
Dr. Nils Erik Forsgård

The course will provide students with fundamental knowledge of the historical development in the Nordic countries, from the Viking Age to Modern Times. The lectures will have a thematic rather than chronological dimension. Some emphasis will be put on the Nordic welfare state and the challenges to the welfare state in the 21st century.

Practice (UE): Baltic Political History, 3 SP
Dr. Andres Kasekamp

This lecture course provides an overview of Baltic history with a focus on political developments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania during the 20th century. Students are encouraged to utilise a comparative approach and not concentrate exclusively on one Baltic country. Students are expected to participate in discussions.

Lecture Series (VL): Basic Regional Knowledge in Politics, Culture, Economics and Media, 2 SP

This lecture series provides students with the basic knowledge of the political, economic, historical and cultural developments in the Baltic Sea region and regional organisations, institutions and projects. Experts from various fields will give weekly presentations on different topics such as security politics, elements of 'Nordic' political identity, and governmental and party systems in the Baltic Sea region.

Practice (ÜE): The Baltic Sea region. Cooperation, conflict and region-building, 3 SP
Mindaugas Jurkynas

The course delivers knowledge about co-operation and integration processes in the Baltic Sea Area. Firstly theoretical insights about region-building, integration and the like are delivered. Then the course turns to aspects of security and role of great powers in the region. Finally, case studies of Kaliningrad, Northern Dimension and North European Initiative are scrutinized in terms of stability and security.

Practice (UE): Cultures, Peoples and Societies of the Baltic Sea Region and the North, 3 SP
Dr. Lassi Heininen and Dr. Andrei Golovnev

The course has an interdisciplinary approach with a main aim to give an overview and a comprehensive picture of the cultural, social, political, economic and environmental situation of the northern parts of Europe, particularly the Baltic Sea Region. The course covers the aspects of history, nations, peoples and states including minority issues, cultures, politics, economics and ecology, international relations, and regionalism. The course is based on lectures in a class with questions and discussion. At the end of the course there is either a final seminar with prepared discussion based on a diary by, or a role game with different actors based on an active participation of the students.

Practice (UE): Economic developments in the countries of the Baltic Sea region, 3 SP
Prof. Dr. Tatyana Muravska and Agnieszka Hreczuk

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a solid background of the economical developments in the northern and southern states of the Baltic Sea region since 1945. Students will discuss the different economic systems in the region with their specific features. Moreover the focus will lay on distinctive problems of the economies of the region, such as liberalisation of the markets, rearrangement of the production and ownership structures, labour market issues and unemployment. The course sessions are covered through a combination of instructions, seminars, discussions and individual work based on short written essays.

2nd Trimester Courses
(April 14 - July 19, 2003)

Advanced Seminar (HS): Societal Transformation Processes and Democratization in the Baltic Sea Region
Ass. Prof. Uffe Jakobsen and Magdalena Zolkos

The different streams of developments in the Baltic Sea Region since 1989 can together be characterized as a 'telescoped modernization' process. The countries in the Eastern part of the Baltic Sea Region have aimed at realizing within decades what lasted centuries in the Western part of the region. So, not only is a process of democratization taking place, but also processes of economic transition to market type economies, of political identity and nation building, even in some cases also of state formation, and human rights development. The aims of the seminar is to clarify the nature and contents of each of these central concepts and processes and to analyze their specific interrelationships. The form of the seminar will be a combination of lectures, student presentation, and discussions of litterature, project papers etc.

Required readings:

• Dahl, Robert A.: On democracy, New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1998
• Pridham, Geoffrey: The dynamics of democratization. A comparative approach, London & New York: Continuum, 2000
• Linz, Juan & Alfred Stepan: Problems of democratic transition and consolidation. Southern Europe, South America, and post-communist Europe, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996 (selected chapters)
• Järve, Priit: "Ethnic Democracy and Estonia: Application of Smootha's Model". ECMI Working Paper, No 00/7, 2000
• Aarebrot, Frank & Terje Knutsen (eds): Politics and Citizenship on the Eastern Baltic Seaboard. The Structuring of Democratic Politics from North-West Russia to Poland, Kristiansand: Høyskoleforlaget, 2000 (selected chapters)
• Storey, Hugo: "Human Rights and the New Europe: Experience and Experiment", in: Political Studies (1995), XLIII, pp. 131-151
• Beetham, David, Democracy and Human Rights, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1999 (selected chapters)

Advanced Seminar (HS): Regional Security Policy (5 SP)
Prof. Zaneta Ozolina and Mindaugas Jurkynas

Aim of the course is to study basic concepts of regional security and apply them to analysis of the Baltic Sea region. Particular attention will be paid to NATO and EU enlargement process that is going to have significant impact on security situation and security arrangements in the region.

Required readings:

• Buzan, Barry (1991) People. Sates and Fear. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester/Wheatsheaf and New York. - pp. 57-230.
• 
  Bonvicini, Gianni, Vaahtoranta, Tapani and Wolfgang Wessels (eds) (2000) The Northern EU. National Views on the Emerging Security Dimension. Helsinki, Berlin: UPI&IEP.

Advanced Seminar (HS): Regional Economic Transformation Processes (5 SP)
Prof. Lise Lyck and Dr. Volker Nitsch

The transition process in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union has been much more difficult than what was expected at the start of the process. A deeper understanding of the different elements of transition and the barriers for transition is necessary to understand the current situation and the prospects for the economies in the final stages of transition and their accession to EU membership. During the course we will compare the situation and development in the Baltic countries with the transition process in other parts of Eastern Europe. What are the possible scenarios for the coming years and for the long run? These perspectives will be analyzed both in relation to the development of institutions at the macro-level and the development of markets and restructuring at the enterprise-level.

Main focus from Dr. Nitsch:

• Aspects of regional integration (What are the effects of regional integration on trade and growth?)
• On the economics of monetary unions (When should countries share a common currency? What are the effects?)
• Economic geography aspects of economic integration (Will integration lead to a relocation of economic activities?)
• Recent developments in transition economics

Main focus from Prof. Lyck:

• Economic and statistical portraits of each of the Baltic countries and an outline of the structure and economy in the Baltic regions.
• Economic structure and development in each of the Baltic countries in relation to EU Aquis Communitaire
• Free movement of goods, labor and capital and consequences
• Foreign trade and foreign direct investments
• The Baltic countries and the Nordic countries - a comparative perspective
  - a partnership perspective
  - a regional perspective

Required Readings:

• Any good international economics textbook such as Krugman and Obstfeld "International Economics"
• European Economy, Enlargement Papers no. 10, October 2002 http://europa.eu.int/comm/economy_finance. Pages 4 - 12, pages 49 - 57, pages 70 - 90
• Nordic Statistical Yearbook, The Baltic Sea Region Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - Main Spatial Trends. Pages 1 - 215
• Baltic Economies, Bimonthly Review, no. 1, 2003: Estonia
• The Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Report Estonia
• The Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Report Latvia
• The Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Report Lithuania
• The Economist Intelligence Unit: Country Report Lithuania Update

Practice (UE): Methods of Regional Research, 3 SP
Dr. Nils Erik Forsgård

The course will focus on regions and regionbuilding aspects in the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. The students attending the course are expected to make an oral presentation focusing on their own home cities (or home counties) and the regions they represent. The presentation should include aspects on, for instance, actors and forms, infrastructure and communications, economical development, political co-operation and cultural profiling.

Required readings:

• Michael Schulz, Fredrik Soderbaum and Joakim Öjendal (eds.): Regionalization in a globalizing world. A comparative perspective on forms, actors and processes, London, 2001

Introductory Seminar (GK): Theories of Regionalism (4 SP)
Dipl. Pol. Martin Nagelschmidt

The introductory seminar "Regionalism in Europe from a Political Science Perspective" is part of the interdisciplinary curriculum of the master programme at the Baltic Sea School Berlin.

The seminar is aimed at imparting theoretical and empirical basic knowledge on the problem of political regionalism in Europe from a political science perspective. For this purpose we will analyse the relevance of the phenomenon for the constitution (polity), for the political process (politics) and for the formulation and implementation of public policies (policy) of modern nation states and in the context of the EU. Historic, socio-cultural and economic factors for regionalism will be discussed as well. Empirical cases mainly from Western Europe will be analysed to compare and to find out what are or could be the conditions of and the consequences for political regionalism in the Baltic Sea Region.

Lecture Series (VL): Perspectives on European Integration (2 SP)
Prof. Dr. Tatyana Muravska and Agnieszka Hreczuk

This lecture series is jointly organized by the Baltic Sea School Berlin and the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences (www2.hu-berlin.de/bgss) from Humboldt University. The series provides knowledge of the political, economic, historical and cultural developments in Europe. Experts from various fields and institutions will give weekly presentations on different topics such as European Integration, EU-Enlargement and Transatlantic Relations.

April 23l
Prof. Gary Marks, University of North Carolina, USA/ Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
Identity and Support for European Integration: A Multi-Level Analysis

April 30
Prof. Nikolaus Werz, University of Rostock
Euro-scepticism and Populism in the Baltic Sea Region

May 7
Monika Helbig, Europa Beauftragte des Landes Berlin
Das Land Berlin am Vorabend der EU-Osterweiterung

May 14
Dr. Heather Grabbe, Research Director, Centre for European Reform, London, Great Britain
The Constellation of Europe: How Enlargement Will Change the EU

May 23
Jörn Donner, Writer, Director and former Member, European Parliament & Finish Parliament
The Nordic View

May 28
Jan Sechter, Minister Counsellor, Czech Embassy in Berlin
Welche Rolle wird Tschechien in der EU spielen?

June 4
Dr. Ursula Polzer, Bereichsleiterin Europa und Internationales, Bundesverband ver.di T
The European policy of ver.di

June 16
Prof. Kristian Gerner, University of Lund, Sweden
Russia and Modernization. From Peter to Putin - a Tragic History

June 18
Dr. Stefan Wolff, Lecturer, University of Bath, Great Britain
Minority Rights Conditionality in the EU Enlargement Process

June 25
Uffe Andreasen, Minister Counsellor, Danish Embassy Berlin
The Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö: The Emergence and Development of a New Trans-national Baltic Sea Region

July 2
Klaus-Jürgen Mette, Schering AG, Berlin
Osterweiterung der EU unter Berücksichtigung wirtschaftlicher und unternehmerischer Perspektiven im Pharmageschäft

July 9
Dr. Steffen Bruendel, Projektleiter Europäische Integration, Gemeinnützige Hertie-Stiftung
Wissenschaft im Spannungsfeld von Osterweiterung und europäischerIntegration - die Hertie-Stiftung als Impulsgeber für Mittel- und Osteuropa

3rd Trimester Courses
(August 19 –December 19, 2003)

MASTER COLLOQUIUM (CO)
Dr. Nils Erik Forsgård, Mindaugas Jurkynas, M.A.

The colloquium will help to structure the thesis in an academically coherent way. The students are to prepare and present summaries or drafts of their MA-thesis's. The draft should focus on theoretical and methodological aspects or challenges relating to the thesis. The presentation should last approximately 30 minutes and will be followed by questions and a general discussion. Students are encouraged to use overhead foils, Microsoft Power Point or other auxiliary means.

Seminar: Nordic Politics
Mindaugas Jurkynas, M.A.

The course will lead into the structure and dynamics of Nordics politics. Main discourses of seminars and lectures will discuss political systems of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden both as separate units and as a region. The construction of the course consists of historical developments in Norden, electoral preferences and party performance, public and welfare models and finally aspects of Nordic role in international politics.