During the past decade the northern part of Europe has again stared to assume an identiy of its own within the new post-Cold War configuration of international relations. New images like the Baltic Sear Area and the Northern Dimension have blurred the hitherto dominant geopolitical categories of East and West whilst also challenging the old narrow conception of Nordic identity. The construction of a 'new' Europe has proved to be a far more open and contested project than it was often assumed that it would be at the start of the 1990s. Alongside new regional projects that aim to transcend national and old geopolitical divisions, one can simultaneously detect practices designed to create new dividing lines. Post-Cold War Identity Politics maps the politics of identity and the emerging forms of co-operation/interaction in this part of the world. In this way, it assesses whether the expanded conception of 'Northern-ness' has the potential to become a new marker on the map of Eruope. Of particular importance is the question of whether regional co-operation might yet bridge the divide between Russian and an ascendant and expansive Euro-Atlantic space. In this respect, the European North can be seen as a kind of litmus test for the new Europe as a whole. This book highlights the existence of several co-existing and - to some extent - competing region-building projects in northern Europe. What unites them is that they can all be comprehended as efforts by existing nations to redefine their role in Europe at a time when the meaning of sovereignty and boundaries is changing. The use of history is one of the main rhetorical moves in the process of relocating nations and naturalising new regions.