Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Latvia, Legislation

In this collection of articles, well-known experts and decision-makers from the USA, the UK, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and Georgia are evaluating the challenges facing the Baltic States and the Transatlantic community 10 years after the EU’s and NATO’s “big bang” enlargement to the East.

Many of the authors concur in that the Baltics have successfully proven themselves on the international arena. At the same time, the need for further changes and further security improvements is obvious, but the experts do not come to a full agreement on what the “homework” is, or rather, they view the current problems from different viewpoints. Economic, political, security aspects are tightly interrelated, and while any one of these is prioritized, the others should not be forgotten. The authors discuss both long- and short-term remedies for the current Baltic and regional issues – starting from a more decisive EU’s and NATO’s policy towards the neighbouring states, up to a need for long-term dialogue in Ukraine. This collection of articles does not only look back at the last 10 years, but also takes stock of the current challenges of Latvia, the other Baltic States and the region, in particular in the context of the upcoming Latvia’s EU presidency. It also allows to search for parallels between the historical Baltics’ and the current Eastern Neighbours’ development. 

The project has been realized with the support of NATO, Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Konrad Adenauer Foundation. It features contributions by Aldis Austers, Jānis Bērziņš, Matthew J. Bryza, Kārlis Bukovskis, Andis Kudors, Kai-Olaf Lang, Imants Lieģis, Amanda Paul, Diāna Potjomkina, Matthew Rojansky, James Sherr, Andris Sprūds, Eka Tkeshelashvili, Viljar Veebel, Doug Wake, and Marcin Zaborowski.