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The Unfinished Business of Baltic Security

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rangerrebew:
The Unfinished Business of Baltic Security

Adam Maisel and Laurynas Keturakis | January 22, 2019
The Unfinished Business of Baltic Security

The year 2018 marked the hundredth anniversary of the the independence of the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Since 1918, the three nations suffered triply by brutal occupations: first by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany, followed by the Soviet Union again. Despite these hardships, the three small nations endured, gaining their independence once again following the fall of the Iron Curtain. And remarkably, they have thrived, transitioning from Soviet republics to productive members of both the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The euphoria of “Fourth Wave” democratization following the collapse of the Soviet Union underscored the drivers and timeline of NATO expansion eastwards into the former Warsaw Pact nations and European Soviet republics, including the Baltic States. It is important to remember that even after the Baltic States acceded to NATO membership, no actual plans for their defense were developed until 2010. Arguably, the costs of guaranteeing the Baltic States’ security would not have been accepted by the Western public or political elites in any time other than the wake of the Soviet Union’s dissolution, which induced a widespread sentiment of democratic victory. At the time, the prospect and promise of Baltic democratization seemed more important than Alliance vulnerabilities. However, the events since then have significantly shifted the mindset of key NATO members.

https://mwi.usma.edu/unfinished-business-baltic-security/

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