ABSTRACT
Northern Europe, for decades divided by the Iron Curtain and the politics of the Cold War, has become, in the 1990s, a veritable laboratory of innovative ways of dealing with the divisive nature of borders. Novel politics have developed at various levels: below the level of states, as cross-border co operation (CBC) as well as EU enlargement. These politics appear to be novel, at least in the context of the inheritance of the modem state system, because they raise precisely the kind of questions - about identity, member ship, representation and democracy in a polity - that have traditionally been absent from international politics. Such contests have been the daily fare within the confines of most modem states, but - sheltered by the principle of state sovereignty - rarely beyond them.
