Arakelian D. The foreign policy of the Baltic states in the context of the EU and NATO's enlargement

The thesis concentrates the analysis of the foreign policy of the Baltic States namely Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia during the period of 1990-2004. In 1990 all three Baltic States declared their independence from the Soviet Union but the situation in these countries was unstable and unpredictable with Moscow implementing both direct and indirect military, political, and economical pressure. In this environment, the Baltic States were striving to establish a national defence system in order to exercise full sovereignty over their territory. On the political level the policy of neutrality was implemented. NATO membership at that time was considered to be not achievable option. During this period, the Soviet army was still deployed in the Baltic States. Therefore, the Baltic States' policy of neutrality was directly implemented as a mean to enable the departure of the Soviet armed forces.