Comparison of security policy documents of the Baltic states

Abstract

This overview outlines, by category, the national security policies and risk mitigation measures in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. To this end, the strategic documents of the security policy of the three Baltic States have been examined with the help of thematic analysis: “Fundamentals of Estonian Security Policy” (2004, 2010, 2017), “Latvian National Security Concept” (2008, 2019) 1 and “Lithuanian National Security Strategy” (2002, 2012, 2017 ) 2. Although each country still has security-related documents, the above-mentioned documents were chosen in order to describe the thematic areas on as similar a basis as possible. The sample was also conditioned by the availability of documents available in English. In Latvia, for example, updated documents are issued every four years, but no official translations are made. Time limits were set by the 2001 attack on the Twin Towers in New York, which changed the global security environment.