In recent years, the EU has been facing more crises than ever before, a trend that most likely will not be broken. Over the last few years, we have seen an economic crisis, migration crisis and a pandemic to name a few. With every new crisis where there is no set agenda on how to act member states are presented with a choice of either take the matter in their own hand and go-it-alone or pursue integration and cooperation. With each member state being able to chose there is potential for the cooperation to become strained. Thus, the purpose of this thesis is to understand the choice of go-it-alone or integration in a context of the nexus of state sovereignty/integration. The nexus will be used to understand the choices of Estonia and Hungary during the Migration crisis and Covid-19 pandemic.  The study was conducted by making use of a qualitative comparative approach of Estonia and Hungary. To engage with the concept of sovereignty four criteria were established from previous theory, Intergovernmentalism and Neofunctionalism. Each perspective was constructed into a pole structured ideal type to allow for analysis based on official governmental material, such as press releases.  The results show that the nexus ’state sovereignty/integration’ can explain the choices made of Estonia and Hungary to either go-it-alone or cooperate. The results show that Estonia was more likely to, in times of crisis, approach integration, but only slightly. Hungary on the other hand was more likely to go-it-alone.

The following thesis deals with two primary matters. The first being the effort of Estonian politicians to change how Estonia's regional belonging is viewed by other countries before the admission into the European Union. These efforts can be illustrated by political actions whose aim was to create the image of Estonia as a Nordic country. These efforts slightly diminished after the admission into the European Union although on some levels they can be still observed. Despite close cooperation Estonia isn't adequate member of Nordic countries to this day. This thesis aspires to explain reasons for these action of Estonian politicians and why they were left off after the admission into EU. The second matter being the region of Nordic countries. Collective Nordic identity helped establish transnational cooperation among involved nations which represents one of the essential characteristics of a Nordic country. The emphasis is on historical context of Nordic identity and the development of Nordic cooperation from its initiation until current state. First the thesis introduces a theoretical insight into the region matters. Consequently it deals with the first matter, the efforts to redefine Estonia as a Nordic country, which is followed by analysis of the concept of a Nordic country and Nordic...

The thesis, entitled Russian Identity: Minority Schools in Contemporary Estonia, analyses Russian upper-secondary schooling in Estonia from the dissolution of the Soviet Union until 2012. It focuses on two issues, which are considered to be important for national-identity building of Russian students living in Estonia: language of instruction and history teaching. In terms of the first issue, the thesis aims to show how is the Estonian government implementing the reform introducing mandatory 60% of curricula in Estonian and how is it perceived by Russian students and their teachers. In terms of the second issue, the thesis examines perception of the Soviet period by the Russian students comparing to the "official" Estonian interpretation advocated by the Ministry of Education. First part of the work focuses on the integration process of Russians into Estonian society stressing its difficulties and implications concerning the national identity of Russians living in Estonia. Second part finally examines the two particular issues (language-of-instruction reform and history teaching) from the point of view of the available written sources, while the final and the key part of the thesis analyses the same issues based on a field research at Russian schools in Estonia.

This thesis aims to highlight the smock-dress within the context of Soviet-Estonia during the post-war epoch, ca. 1950s until 1990s. Through Mauss’s socio-anthropological tripoint view, the concepts and identities of the smock-dress are studied from the angles of biology, sociology and psychology. The intention is to show its widespread use amongst Soviet- Estonian women and their remembrance of it, in accordance with the Soviet ideological structures. Using semi-structured interviews, I have assembled oral history from women who attain this historical retrospective, aiming to depict the smock-dress as both a concept and an object, thus functioning as an emblem of Soviet society rather than a historical artefact. Relying on the terms nostalgia, socio-cultural belonging and phenomenology, I seek to capture the smock-dress as both a vestiary phenomenon and representation of social structures. Thus, creating a dual identity, individual and collective, through its usage, showing that sartorial fashion encompasses more than just emotions and promoted stylistics.

Finland and Estonia, the two peripheral states of the European Union’s north-eastern corner have steadily converged since the fall of the Soviet Union, both bilaterally and in a multilateral European context. The co-operation is significant and covers multiple sectors of society. Now the two countries have set out on a project to join their two capitals by building a fixed link under the Gulf of Finland forming the symbolic twin-capital of Talsinki. This case-study sets out to analyse what motivations there are in creation of the twin-capital, and what relevance does the fixed link have on the regionalization process.The qualitative analysis of policy and spatial-economic documentation triangulated with media sources shows that the incentives are mainly economic, and the process is mainly driven by state- and regional level politicians motivated by regional development. The study also indicates that the rising influence of China and other global actors has an effect on the regional politics of peripheral Europe.

This paper will trace the development of musicology in Estonia, focusing especially upon some research problems and methods used for investigating folk music in the 1970s and 1980s.

This study applies a post-structural discourse analysis developed by Carol Bacchi, called the WPR-approach, on both Estonia's and the Czech Republic's cyber security policy with the purpose of comparing it to the Swedish cyber security policy. It utilizes Foucauldian ideas about how policy creates rather than discovers “problems'' through representation, and what effects this can have. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the government's work to strengthen Swedish society's cyber security policies, which includes both the public and private sectors, through analysis and comparison of two previously vulnerable countries' policy documents. By previously exposed countries is meant here exposed to socially disruptive cyber-attacks. The results show that many of the identified fundamental problems in the two equivalent policies are not taken into care by the Swedish policy. A conclusion is drawn that the Swedish cybersecurity strategy seems to fail to sufficiently address in what way knowledge-raising measures are needed, especially at the strategic levels. This is important for enabling an overall positive cyber security climate which probably affects how well cyber security will be integrated in ordinary business processes. Lack of sufficient incentive structures seem equally important to acknowledge as well as to investigate further, and perhaps there is also a need for a more ambitious approach as well as a less vague view on responsibility. Finally, as other researchers suggest, there is an urgent need to conduct significantly more research in the interdisciplinary field of cyber security. / <p>2022-05-25</p>

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How do small EU member states approach the Council Presidency: is the Presidency a silencer or an amplifier of national interests? Moreover, what challenges and opportunities do a small state face in the Presidency? In this comparative case study, I analysed the approach, challenges and opportunities of three member states in relation to the chairmanship: Denmark, an old and experienced member state and its Presidency in 2012; Latvia, a relatively new member state and first time Presidency in 2015; and finally Estonia, another new member, and its upcoming first time Presidency in 2018.My main findings indicate that the Presidency functions as a silencer for first time holders of the Presidency; and as an amplifier for Denmark, which efficiently used cognitive power resources to tilt the Presidency agenda in its favour, while remaining an honest broker. The Presidency offers many opportunities, among which the most important is the transformation of the public administration. Moreover, to showcase the EU to the incumbent state, and vice versa, is important for the integration process. It is also essential for the identity formation of small states to prove their capacity within the union. Finally, I established that a close relationship with the Commission is an important leadership quality and power resource for small states. For small states, the Presidency represents a challenge for the public administration, while unforeseeable events can entirely change the course of the Presidency. Furthermore, the domestic as well as the European political landscape can negatively influence the decision-making.

No / Baltic Germans who were active on behalf of especially German minorities throughout Europe during the 1920s have already found some recognition in especially German-language studies. Now they are receiving a wider coverage. Two of these men, Werner Hasselblatt and Ewald Ammende, came from Estonia and played a part in the development of the cultural autonomy legislation enacted in 1925. Traditionally this has been counted a positive contribution to the management of Europe's minorities during the inter-war period. During the 1930s at the latest, however, both Hasselblatt and Ammende drifted towards German National Socialism. Through an investigation of the ideas of these men, this paper attempts to interpret lives which helped to create apparently progressive legislation in the 1920s, but which compromised with a dreadful political movement soon afterwards. What were the motives behind their actions?