Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)

The paper deals with the range of problems regarding the relation between decisions of political elite in small states and their striving for occupying a certain niche in external (foreign) political environment. The typology of such niches is proposed. The article deals with economic, military, pol...

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Autor principal:	V. A. Smirnov
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN RU
Publicado:	MGIMO University Press 2015
Materias:	political elite baltic states lithuania latvia estonia nato infrastructure foreign policy niche International relations JZ2-6530
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/12468d1a91e3462a8867bf3d294f945c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:12468d1a91e3462a8867bf3d294f945c2021-11-23T14:51:00ZForeign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)2071-81602541-909910.24833/2071-8160-2015-6-45-135-145https://doaj.org/article/12468d1a91e3462a8867bf3d294f945c2015-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.vestnik.mgimo.ru/jour/article/view/456https://doaj.org/toc/2071-8160https://doaj.org/toc/2541-9099The paper deals with the range of problems regarding the relation between decisions of political elite in small states and their striving for occupying a certain niche in external (foreign) political environment. The typology of such niches is proposed. The article deals with economic, military, political, and ideological dimensions of political elites' decisions in the Baltic states. The article makes the case of the following hypothesis: the exploitation of the "Russian threat" concept by political elites of the Baltic states is aimed at occupying a special niche within the Euro-Atlantic community. The narrow corridor for political maneuver imposed by strategic imperatives of NATO induces political elites of the Baltic states to attract attention of powerful states, which brings resources, finances and more prominent status. Inciting confrontation with Russia serves as a means for internal political consolidation, proving loyalty towards NATO, and contributes to individual careers of politicians with the EU institutions. The choice of 'conflict model' entails side-effects: slowdown of social and economic development in the long run. The following research inference is made: by means of conflict model which is being realized within external political niche ("gate-keeper" and "missionary" types) political elite of the Baltic states gain additional resources in the middle-term perspective. However, in the long term this political course generally reduces opportunities for political and economic development of small states. In theoretical and methodological dimension the research results confirm productivity of three-level analysis approach towards activity of political elite. The most general level of analysis deals with empire units of international relations which structure the environment for small states' elites actions. At the middle level it is possible scrutinize different varieties of external (foreign) political niches available to a certain small state. The third level of analysis deals with investigation of concrete economic, military, political and ideological decisions of political elite within a certain external (foreign) political niche.V. A. SmirnovMGIMO University Pressarticlepolitical elitebaltic stateslithuanialatviaestonianatoinfrastructureforeign policy nicheInternational relationsJZ2-6530ENRUVestnik MGIMO-Universiteta, Vol 0, Iss 6(45), Pp 135-145 (2015)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN RU
topic	political elite baltic states lithuania latvia estonia nato infrastructure foreign policy niche International relations JZ2-6530
spellingShingle	political elite baltic states lithuania latvia estonia nato infrastructure foreign policy niche International relations JZ2-6530 V. A. Smirnov Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
description	The paper deals with the range of problems regarding the relation between decisions of political elite in small states and their striving for occupying a certain niche in external (foreign) political environment. The typology of such niches is proposed. The article deals with economic, military, political, and ideological dimensions of political elites' decisions in the Baltic states. The article makes the case of the following hypothesis: the exploitation of the "Russian threat" concept by political elites of the Baltic states is aimed at occupying a special niche within the Euro-Atlantic community. The narrow corridor for political maneuver imposed by strategic imperatives of NATO induces political elites of the Baltic states to attract attention of powerful states, which brings resources, finances and more prominent status. Inciting confrontation with Russia serves as a means for internal political consolidation, proving loyalty towards NATO, and contributes to individual careers of politicians with the EU institutions. The choice of 'conflict model' entails side-effects: slowdown of social and economic development in the long run. The following research inference is made: by means of conflict model which is being realized within external political niche ("gate-keeper" and "missionary" types) political elite of the Baltic states gain additional resources in the middle-term perspective. However, in the long term this political course generally reduces opportunities for political and economic development of small states. In theoretical and methodological dimension the research results confirm productivity of three-level analysis approach towards activity of political elite. The most general level of analysis deals with empire units of international relations which structure the environment for small states' elites actions. At the middle level it is possible scrutinize different varieties of external (foreign) political niches available to a certain small state. The third level of analysis deals with investigation of concrete economic, military, political and ideological decisions of political elite within a certain external (foreign) political niche.
format	article
author	V. A. Smirnov
author_facet	V. A. Smirnov
author_sort	V. A. Smirnov
title	Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
title_short	Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
title_full	Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
title_fullStr	Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
title_full_unstemmed	Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)
title_sort	foreign policy niche of small states: the problem of choice (the case of baltic states)
publisher	MGIMO University Press
publishDate	2015
url	https://doaj.org/article/12468d1a91e3462a8867bf3d294f945c
work_keys_str_mv	AT vasmirnov foreignpolicynicheofsmallstatestheproblemofchoicethecaseofbalticstates
_version_	1718416257380777984

Foreign Policy Niche of Small States: The Problem of Choice (The Case of Baltic States)

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