A scholarly journal from the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) Södertörn University, Stockholm.
Issue 2026, 1: Download.
León Poblete, PhD candidate at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Currently working on his doctoral dissertation in which he studies the dynamics of business-to-business relationships and complex business networks in industrial markets. The Swedish defense and security industry is the main empirical context in his research.
H. Richard Nakamura, assistant professor at the Centre for International Business Studies at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, holds a PhD in International Business Studies from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. His research concerns international business, management and entrepreneurship, especially regarding cross-border mergers and acquisitions and foreign direct investments in the Baltic Sea and East Asia regions.
Lithuanian politician and ex-President Algirdas Brazauskas was a Communist leader, who became a reformer of considerable prominence, a Western-style social democrat, and finally a statesman, European-style. Here is an interview with this pragmatic leader, only shortly before he died in cancer in June 2010.
There was no doubt among Swedish diplomats and union leaders that they would support the independent trade union movement Solidarity that had suddenly appeared on the Polish stage. Still, they could not ignore the risk of renewed military intervention that would have had disastrous consequences for Poland and security in Europe. This essay presents how diplomats and union leaders acted and communicated to support the democratization of Poland.
Over the past two decades Poland has begun to catch up to the wealthier parts of Europe. Between 1996 and 2008, average growth in Poland was 4.6 percent, compared with 2.2 percent in the EU-15. During the crisis year of 2009, Poland was the only EU country to post positive GDP growth. Prosperity has increased, infant mortality has fallen and life expectancy is longer. But income growth has been unequally distributed. There are winners and losers. Today Poland is among the group of European countries in which income inequality is greatest.
Baltic Worlds will be commenting on the parliamentary and presidential elections taking place in countries around the Baltic Sea region and in Eastern Europe. The comments and analyses, written by researchers and in a few cases by expert journalists, present the parties, the candidates and the main issues of the election, as well as analyze the implications of the results. First out: a report from the election in Poland this summer.
The Polish domestic political scene since the presidential election has been characterized by much sharper political divisions than before the disaster in Smolensk on April 10. At no time since 1989, have the tone of debate and the accusations been as hostile as now. Jaroslaw Kaczynski may have lost the presidential election, but because of the disaster in Smolensk and the good election results, he emerged politically stronger from the campaign. He has now set his sights on the next election campaigns in Poland. In November, municipal elections will be held, including politically important direct elections to mayoral positions in the cities of Poland. Next year it will be time for election to the Polish Sejm. All indications suggest that the strong differences of opinion and the angry tone of Polish politics will continue until the parliamentary election, although some hold hopes that somewhat cooler political winds may blow across the country after the municipal election this fall.
Ann-Cathrine Jungar co-ordinate Baltic Worlds’ election coverage, on elections taking place in countries around the Baltic Sea region and in […]
On June 24, 2010 Regeringsrätten, Sweden’s Supreme Administrative Court, reached a verdict, marking a victory for Professor Birgitta Almgren’s research. Both the Swedish Security Service (Säpo) and the Stockholm Administrative Court of Appeal had rejected Professor Almgren's request to obtain the classified documents from the GDR's foreign espionage that the CIA sent to Säpo.
ICCEES’ (International Council for Central and Eastern European Studies) Eight World Congress “Eurasia: Prospects for Wider Communication” took place in Stockholm, Sweden in July 2010. Host was the Swedish Society for the Study of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Sällskapet ). Here you may read Mikhail Gorbachev´s speech, presented at the Opening Ceremony by Pavel Palazhchenko, advisor and interpreter to Mikhail Gorbachev. Also available is an essay based on Professor Archie Browns key note lecture “Gorbachev and Perestroika: a 25th Anniversary Perspective”. The Opening Ceremony and a discussion between Archie Brown, Jack Matlock, author and US ambassador in Moscow 1987‐1991 and Pavel Palazhchenko is published as video films here.
Gorbachev here emphasize that the essence of glasnost was a real dialogue between authorities and society. The dialogue, he argues here, required a rejection of all forms of censorship and pressure on the mass media, the existence of rights for freedom of assembly, meetings and demonstrations, freedom of conscience, and the creation of public organisations. All this was done in the perestroika years according to Gorbachev.
Professor Archie Brown argues that Gorbachev was not selected as General Secretary because he was a reformer. He did at the time he became party leader believe both that the system was reformable and that it must be reformed. But he did not, however, reveal the full extent of his existing reformism on the eve of perestroika.