ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the unequal power relations between neighbouring countries – in casu the Baltic Sea region. It focuses on how governments deal with the consequences of power disparity and its possible effects on cooperative security and integration. Unequal power relations and uncertain viability bear on the security of the units. Power plays are moves by actors to assert themselves vis-a-vis and at the expense of other actors. The power context – the issue at hand – determines the salience of a particular power disparity. The maintenance of cooperative relations in the region is an assumed goal. If actors seriously aspire to it, they need to cope with conflict so as to keep power plays within limits. Cooperative security policies thus reflect the attitudes of former or potential adversaries to the present and future relationship between them, policies which they seek to shift from a more to a less conflictual mode.
