Final Report Summary - ERBORD (Border Security Issues in EU-Russia Relations: Challenges, Perceptions, and Responses)
The support of the Marie Curie Fellowship programme gave the grantee an opportunity to produce the first monograph, specially devoted to EU-Russian border security issues. The study is theoretically based on a pragmatist-dialogical approach that is new for Border Studies. This approach evaluates ideas by their practical consequences and stresses evaluation and development of dialogue between "gatekeepers" (i. e. decision-makers in the field of border policy and the section of the public supporting tough border protection measures) and border crossers (tourists, shuttle traders, international cargo carriers etc.) with the participation of scholars, journalists and entrepreneurs (such as travel agents or international passenger carriers) as intermediaries. This dialogue would facilitate finding a better balance between two key border policy priorities: border protection and encouragement of legal cross-border interaction. Since currently such dialogue concerning the EU-Russian border is weak, the side effects of tough border protection-such as unfriendly visa policies towards applicants, corruption and extortion by officers of border protection agencies, and faultfinding customs inspections-unfortunately stay in the background of the agendas of relevant research and practical policies. Thus, whereas the discourses of "friendly", "open for law-abiding crossers" and even of a "deterritorialised" EU-Russian border already gained practical importance, the grantee suggests promoting the discourse of "dialogic border" both at theoretical and practical levels.
Apart from this, some specific practical recommendations were elaborated. They concern primarily: improvement of the visa regime; managing border queues; battling corruption and extortion at the EU-Russian border; relations between authorities and shuttle traders; and other topical issues.
The grantee hopes that the results of his research will attract the attention both of scholars specialising in Border Studies and EU-Russian relations, and of practitioners from Russia, European Union agencies, Finland, the Baltic states and Poland, trying to elaborate and implement more balanced border policies. These results may be also useful for individuals and organisations representing the interests of various groups of border crossers (e. g. human rights observers and national associations of carriers) whose more active participation in border crossing dialogue is assumed in the conceptual background.
Virtually all important results of the project should be published in the first half of 2012 in the monograph "EU-Russian Border Security: Challenges, (Mis) perceptions, and Responses" (Routledge). Apart from this, the grantee published a policy memo on the problems of the visa regime between the European Union and Russia ("EU-Russian Visa Talks: Open and Hidden Agendas", PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 144 May 2011, http://www.gwu. edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pepm_144. pdf), reported about his finding at seven conferences and five lectures (taught in Estonian, Russian, and UK universities). He also published three reviews of theoretical works examined in the process of preparing the conceptual background of the main study.
Apart from this, some specific practical recommendations were elaborated. They concern primarily: improvement of the visa regime; managing border queues; battling corruption and extortion at the EU-Russian border; relations between authorities and shuttle traders; and other topical issues.
The grantee hopes that the results of his research will attract the attention both of scholars specialising in Border Studies and EU-Russian relations, and of practitioners from Russia, European Union agencies, Finland, the Baltic states and Poland, trying to elaborate and implement more balanced border policies. These results may be also useful for individuals and organisations representing the interests of various groups of border crossers (e. g. human rights observers and national associations of carriers) whose more active participation in border crossing dialogue is assumed in the conceptual background.
Virtually all important results of the project should be published in the first half of 2012 in the monograph "EU-Russian Border Security: Challenges, (Mis) perceptions, and Responses" (Routledge). Apart from this, the grantee published a policy memo on the problems of the visa regime between the European Union and Russia ("EU-Russian Visa Talks: Open and Hidden Agendas", PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 144 May 2011, http://www.gwu. edu/~ieresgwu/assets/docs/ponars/pepm_144. pdf), reported about his finding at seven conferences and five lectures (taught in Estonian, Russian, and UK universities). He also published three reviews of theoretical works examined in the process of preparing the conceptual background of the main study.