From April 24 to 26, the research team from Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) participated in the 16th International Conference on Baltic Studies in Europe (CBSE 2025), held in Cambridge, United Kingdom. The 2025 conference gathered the largest number of participants in the history of the event – more than 500 scholars, policy leaders, and experts from around the world, highlighting the role of the Baltic States in the global context.
Exploring the central position of the Baltic region between East and West, addressing the current challenges and opportunities facing the Baltic region today, and promoting dialogue on the region's security, identity and global relevance, the theme of the 2025 conference was “Converging paths: The Baltic between East and West”. The conference was opened by prof. Brendan Simms, Centre Director and Strand Leader, presented a lecture on “Britain and the geopolitics of the Baltic ”, which examined the UK's long-standing ties and strategic interests in the region. Nick Thomas-Symonds, UK Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, presented a paper on the evolution of the UK-EU relationship and its implications for the Baltic States. Patrick Salmon, Chief Historian at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, closed the conference with “Churchill and the Baltic”, highlighting the historical resonance of the region in British foreign policy.
The presentation of the research conducted by Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences researchers - Aija van der Stein, Linda Veliverronen and Ilze Grīnfelde - was held at the Cambridge Guildhall, with its historic interior in stark contrast to the content of the research - “Typology of the USSR military heritage in the context of stakeholder perception and tourism demand”. A. van der Stein and L. Veliverronen presented the project “Socio-economic value of the Soviet military heritage of the occupation period in the territory of Latvia from the stakeholders' point of view: to preserve or to forget?” The preliminary results of the analysis of the expert interviews conducted in the framework of the project, which allowed to identify the first criteria that can be used to determine which military heritage sites related to the Cold War period have tourism potential and which have less, as well as outlined possible ways of classifying the typology of military heritage.
L. Veliverronen says: "We discussed the use of Cold War-related military heritage in tourism, highlighting the sensitivity of this heritage. The intensive preparation for the conference also allowed us to take an important step towards the outcome - the creation of a model. This will facilitate heritage management decision-making for owners and managers of military heritage."
This research is funded by the Latvian Council of Sciences, project "From Soviet military legacy to heritage: Stakeholder perspectives on socio-economic values of sites in Latvia (VA#MILIT)”, project No. lzp-2024/1-0565.
For further information, please contact:
Linda Veliverronen
Project Manager, Lead Researcher
