Structures of Détente and Ecological Interdependence: Cooperation in the Baltic Sea Area for the Protection of Marine Environment and Living Resources

Abstract

In comparison with the more general structural features in the Baltic region, a special kind of functional system with the participation of all the Baltic states has been created for the protection of the marine environment and living resources in the Baltic Sea area. The questions posed by the author are: What is the function of this particular 'system' in the context of the more general systemic structures of the region? Is it relatively isolated from, or linked to, other more politicized issue-areas? What are the possibilities for, and limits to, further cooperation? Two approaches could be taken to evaluate these matters. First, such cooperation could be considered in instrumental terms, i.e. we could focus on its contribution to the creation, strengthening and diversification of the structures of détente at a sub-regional level; the forms of cooperation discussed could be regarded as prime examples of such manifold multilateral cooperation between states representing different socio-economic systems, the promotion of which is encouraged in the Final Act of the CSCE at an all-European level. However, a different approach, turning the functionalist formulation upside down and asking to what extent the politicization of technical coopera tion limits advancement of collaboration in these fields is considered more relevant in this context. It is concluded that the process of détente cannot be said to have generated the cooperation, and that the cooperation that has evolved is likely to function despite certain political impediments and deadlocks.