Foreword

Abstract

Relations between the center and periphery is a classical political, legal and also cultural issue. As any observer of international relations in recent months have noted, these relations have come to the fore in a number of both national and international agendas.

This is true not only for the European continent, but for on-going conflicts in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America which as well are examples of the challenges that states are exposed to, when dealing with actors based on identity interests, not the least when they are expressed as cross-border political forces.

In the Nordic region, the year 2017 has given a reason for a certain form of intro-spection in relation to the centenary of the Republic of Finland, which at the end of the First World War became independent from the position as a Grand Duchy of Russia. From then on, it was only Iceland that waited for its independence in the Nordic countries, something which was made possible in connection to the next major European War, WWII. Also in this context, the territorial dimensions of identity issues were critical dimensions in the processes that led up to settlements that also hold today.

As the currently ongoing negotiations on a new Autonomy Act illustrates, the autonomy of Åland has been regularly revised and developed during the almost 100 years under which it is has been operative. This has kept the issue both alive and controlled. The autonomy – which in the case of Åland and Finland is part of a larger package of instruments – was at the time of its formation part of a rethinking of a wider international perspective on state formation, self-determination and the creation of a modern state system. The established European system of a balance of power was exposed to ideas of geopolitics and the rights of colonies, peaceful conflict resolution and modern state formation.

Some of these dimensions are treated in detail in this Issue of JASS. It brings together autonomy and security dimensions on a time-line of one hundred years, thus analysing not only a way of thinking one hundred years ago, but also giving an example of how key actors in a center-periphery relation have dealt with the situation, up till today.