Security Perceptions Among Local Elites and Prospects for Cooperation Across Russia's Northwestern Borders

A profound shift in the concept of security has taken place over the last decade. The focus of security policy in the West has expanded beyond traditional military threats posed by states to include transnational issues, such as drug trafficking, terrorism, money laundering and environmental hazards. In the European Union, a common legal and economic space and a multilevel authority structure help to improve its security governance. In Russia, by contrast, a weak economic and legal base threatens to transform it into a failed state, making the political elite in Moscow highly sensitive to perceived threats to national sovereignty and territorial integrity. This study attempts to identify actors and institutions within Russia with the potential to effectively act within an altered global security environment. The author examines the relationship between transnational forces and interactions, national government policy and local political developments in Russia's northwestern border regions, the closest points of contact between Russia and an ever more integrated European Union.