Kaarel Piirimäe
Biographic Data
| ID | 4149569 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kaarel Piirimäe |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kaarel |
| FAMILY NAME | Piirimäe |
| SIGNATURE | PIIRIMÄE K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tartu |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6523-1967 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The Baltic Appeal to the United Nations and the Cold War Struggle over Self-Determination
In 1966, Baltic activists in the USA established an organization that started lobbying the United Nations to spread anti-colonial self-determination from Africa and Asia to Europe, particularly to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, annexed by the Soviet Union. For five years, the Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (BATUN) tried to persuade UN member states that the Soviet Baltic republics should be decolonized. While it is known that the global Sou…
Geopolitics of Sympathy’
In the light of the dramatic escalation of the Russian war on Ukraine since February 2022, questions concerning the handling of Russia in the post-Cold War era, and the enlargement of NATO in particular, are timelier than ever. This article scrutinises the views of George F. Kennan, one of the most influential critics of the decision to expand NATO. It is widely accepted that Kennan's opposition to NATO was grounded in realism about international…
A nearly perfect marathon
Ron Asmus, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, liked to say that the Baltic states had to run a marathon to join NATO but could rely on the support of their American ‘coaches.’ Estonian diplomats have used the word ‘babysitter’ to describe their American colleagues. While it is true that the result of NATO enlargement was never inevitable, the uncertainties of the process were diminished by cooperation between candidate countries and the forc…
With or without Russia? The Boris, Bill and Helmut Bromance and the Harsh Realities of Securing Europe in the Post-Wall World, 1990-1994
Much controversy exists over the making of Europe’s security architecture after the end of the Cold War, specifically how and why the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] emerged as the preferred solution to the continent’s security conundrum, and where this development left Russia. These questions have puzzled historians and political scientists. Crucially, they also continue to resonate politically, as the Ukraine crisis of 2021/22 shows. …
Baltic crisis
The end of the Cold War was in many ways a formative moment in recent European and global history, but it also had important regional and interregional ramifications. Not least from the Baltic and Nordic perspectives, the events in 1987–1992 marked the definite end of an era, and the beginning of another. As relevant sources from these years have increasingly become available, a research community has emerged to investigate the complexities of in…
Estonia “has not time
This article is about the Estonian transition from the era of perestroika to the 1990s. It suggests that the Estonian national movement considered the existence of the nation to be threatened. Therefore, it used the window of opportunity presented by perestroika to take control of time and break free of the empire. This essay has the following theoretical premises. First, Estonia was not engaged in “normal politics” but in something that I will c…
Gorbachev’s new thinking and how its interaction with perestroika in the republics catalysed the Soviet collapse
The introduction of the ‘New Thinking’ (NT) marked a radical departure from the foreign-policy traditions adhered to by Soviet leaders since the Bolshevik Revolution. Launched by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, his policy approach of NT changed the nature of East-West relations paving the way for the end of the Cold War. A lesser known facet of NT was the perestroika (restructuring) of Soviet foreign policy – especially the devolutio…
Postcolonialism and the Soviet Union. Epp Annus, Soviet Postcolonial Studies
.
Liberals and nationalism
The Baltic states were among the ‘new’ states that were created after the First World War; they were the only states to lose their sovereignty during the Second World War. Most historians explain the birth and demise of the Baltic states in terms of their relative strength vis-à-vis the great powers. This article places the short-lived independence of the Baltic states into the perspective of intellectual history by focusing on two Western thinke…
Masters of the Baltic’
Federalism in the Baltic
The objective of this article is to challenge the widespread interpretation of interwar East Central Europe as a hotbed of excessive nationalism, by establishing a longue durée of federalist thinking in Estonia in the first half of the twentieth century. By focusing on personal continuities from the founding years of the Estonian Republic into the 1940s, it is possible to detect a remarkable persistence of ‘idealist’ visions about intra and inter…
The Baltic question during the Cold War
John Hiden, Vahur Made, and David J. Smith, London, Routledge, 2008, xi+209 pp As the editors rightly point out, this is the first systematic analysis of the role of the Baltic states in internatio
The Baltic question during the Cold War
John Hiden, Vahur Made, and David J. Smith, London, Routledge, 2008, xi+209 pp As the editors rightly point out, this is the first systematic analysis of the role of the Baltic states in internatio
Baltic crisis
The end of the Cold War was in many ways a formative moment in recent European and global history, but it also had important regional and interregional ramifications. Not least from the Baltic and Nordic perspectives, the events in 1987–1992 marked the definite end of an era, and the beginning of another. As relevant sources from these years have increasingly become available, a research community has emerged to investigate the complexities of in…
Estonia “has not time
This article is about the Estonian transition from the era of perestroika to the 1990s. It suggests that the Estonian national movement considered the existence of the nation to be threatened. Therefore, it used the window of opportunity presented by perestroika to take control of time and break free of the empire. This essay has the following theoretical premises. First, Estonia was not engaged in “normal politics” but in something that I will c…
With or without Russia? The Boris, Bill and Helmut Bromance and the Harsh Realities of Securing Europe in the Post-Wall World, 1990-1994
Much controversy exists over the making of Europe’s security architecture after the end of the Cold War, specifically how and why the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] emerged as the preferred solution to the continent’s security conundrum, and where this development left Russia. These questions have puzzled historians and political scientists. Crucially, they also continue to resonate politically, as the Ukraine crisis of 2021/22 shows. …
Gorbachev’s new thinking and how its interaction with perestroika in the republics catalysed the Soviet collapse
The introduction of the ‘New Thinking’ (NT) marked a radical departure from the foreign-policy traditions adhered to by Soviet leaders since the Bolshevik Revolution. Launched by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, his policy approach of NT changed the nature of East-West relations paving the way for the end of the Cold War. A lesser known facet of NT was the perestroika (restructuring) of Soviet foreign policy – especially the devolutio…
Federalism in the Baltic
The objective of this article is to challenge the widespread interpretation of interwar East Central Europe as a hotbed of excessive nationalism, by establishing a longue durée of federalist thinking in Estonia in the first half of the twentieth century. By focusing on personal continuities from the founding years of the Estonian Republic into the 1940s, it is possible to detect a remarkable persistence of ‘idealist’ visions about intra and inter…
The Baltic question during the Cold War
John Hiden, Vahur Made, and David J. Smith, London, Routledge, 2008, xi+209 pp As the editors rightly point out, this is the first systematic analysis of the role of the Baltic states in internatio
Masters of the Baltic’
Federalism in the Baltic
The objective of this article is to challenge the widespread interpretation of interwar East Central Europe as a hotbed of excessive nationalism, by establishing a longue durée of federalist thinking in Estonia in the first half of the twentieth century. By focusing on personal continuities from the founding years of the Estonian Republic into the 1940s, it is possible to detect a remarkable persistence of ‘idealist’ visions about intra and inter…
Liberals and nationalism
The Baltic states were among the ‘new’ states that were created after the First World War; they were the only states to lose their sovereignty during the Second World War. Most historians explain the birth and demise of the Baltic states in terms of their relative strength vis-à-vis the great powers. This article places the short-lived independence of the Baltic states into the perspective of intellectual history by focusing on two Western thinke…
Postcolonialism and the Soviet Union. Epp Annus, Soviet Postcolonial Studies
.
Gorbachev’s new thinking and how its interaction with perestroika in the republics catalysed the Soviet collapse
The introduction of the ‘New Thinking’ (NT) marked a radical departure from the foreign-policy traditions adhered to by Soviet leaders since the Bolshevik Revolution. Launched by General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986, his policy approach of NT changed the nature of East-West relations paving the way for the end of the Cold War. A lesser known facet of NT was the perestroika (restructuring) of Soviet foreign policy – especially the devolutio…
Estonia “has not time
This article is about the Estonian transition from the era of perestroika to the 1990s. It suggests that the Estonian national movement considered the existence of the nation to be threatened. Therefore, it used the window of opportunity presented by perestroika to take control of time and break free of the empire. This essay has the following theoretical premises. First, Estonia was not engaged in “normal politics” but in something that I will c…
With or without Russia? The Boris, Bill and Helmut Bromance and the Harsh Realities of Securing Europe in the Post-Wall World, 1990-1994
Much controversy exists over the making of Europe’s security architecture after the end of the Cold War, specifically how and why the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation [NATO] emerged as the preferred solution to the continent’s security conundrum, and where this development left Russia. These questions have puzzled historians and political scientists. Crucially, they also continue to resonate politically, as the Ukraine crisis of 2021/22 shows. …
Baltic crisis
The end of the Cold War was in many ways a formative moment in recent European and global history, but it also had important regional and interregional ramifications. Not least from the Baltic and Nordic perspectives, the events in 1987–1992 marked the definite end of an era, and the beginning of another. As relevant sources from these years have increasingly become available, a research community has emerged to investigate the complexities of in…
Geopolitics of Sympathy’
In the light of the dramatic escalation of the Russian war on Ukraine since February 2022, questions concerning the handling of Russia in the post-Cold War era, and the enlargement of NATO in particular, are timelier than ever. This article scrutinises the views of George F. Kennan, one of the most influential critics of the decision to expand NATO. It is widely accepted that Kennan's opposition to NATO was grounded in realism about international…
A nearly perfect marathon
Ron Asmus, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, liked to say that the Baltic states had to run a marathon to join NATO but could rely on the support of their American ‘coaches.’ Estonian diplomats have used the word ‘babysitter’ to describe their American colleagues. While it is true that the result of NATO enlargement was never inevitable, the uncertainties of the process were diminished by cooperation between candidate countries and the forc…
The Baltic Appeal to the United Nations and the Cold War Struggle over Self-Determination
In 1966, Baltic activists in the USA established an organization that started lobbying the United Nations to spread anti-colonial self-determination from Africa and Asia to Europe, particularly to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, annexed by the Soviet Union. For five years, the Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (BATUN) tried to persuade UN member states that the Soviet Baltic republics should be decolonized. While it is known that the global Sou…
Political science (11 works) · Economic history (9 works) · History (9 works) · History (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Eastern European Communism and Reforms (5 works)