Thesis Title: Small State Security Strategies: a comparison of the Baltic States’ security policies throughout independence
Abstract: In the context of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, conventional International Relations frameworks are put in question, while newfound recognition is awarded to Eastern European policy makers who correctly warned of the Russian revanchist threat. The Baltic States in particular are a crucial case study, as small states with limited means, who nonetheless were forced to maneuver between their perceived threat versus the geographic reorientation and fading regional interest of their security guarantors. Figuring out how the three neighbouring states utilized their resources and policies to maintain security and relevance within their alliances throughout the past two and a half decades of their independence is the goal of this research project.
To do this, I employ frameworks of Grand Strategy and Alliance Shelter-Seeking to parse the strategies of the Baltics, and where they differ. By utilising both historical and collected interview data from policymakers and scholars in the Baltic States, I seek to establish the factors fostering divergence in the policy approaches of the three states. Their differing pursuits of visibility within their alliances and the global scene with rash policy decisions, leadership in specific policy areas, or attempts at collective bargaining respectively – all contrast strongly with the Baltics’ strikingly similar geopolitical situations and resources. This PhD will contribute not only case study analysis to existing International Relations frameworks that have thus far overlooked small states in Eastern Europe as actors with agency, but it will also contribute towards a more holistic analysis of policy and international posturing of states, influenced by their cultural and historic threat perception and behavioural traditions.
Primary Supervisor: Dr Hillary Biffa
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