1/11 As someone who has spent all his career studying the history of the ‘small’ states situated between Russia and Germany, I am very concerned about the framing of the Russian war against Ukraine as a conflict between Russia and NATO.
2/11 Of course, NATO should not forcibly expand, but it also hasn’t: Membership is sought through application. If we want to respect the agency of ‘small’ states, we need to respect their wish to join NATO. None of them were ‘seduced’ into joining NATO.
3/11 It is difficult for people in the ‘West’ to understand what security means to these states. Security has been ingrained into their foreign policy ever since 1991. It’s not something abstract as it is for many in Western Europe.
4/11 Ukraine’s, Lithuania’s, Moldova’s or Estonia’s security concerns are much more objective than Russia’s. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has not faced any military threat from its western border.
5/11 As @ @MMalksoo explains much better than I can, for the citizens of these states, fear of being wiped off the map is a mindset – it influences their everyday lives, how they plan for the future, and how they view their place in history. e-ir.info/2017/09/22/int…
6/11 If ‘security signifies certainty about the existence of the collective Self’ (@Sapienology), these states’ societies have a need for security that simply can’t be compared to how security is understood in either Russia or the ‘West’. jstor.org/stable/2973428…
7/11 Those who frame this war as a consequence of NATO encroachment into Russia’s sphere of influence ignore this entirely. ‘Realists’ will say: But that’s the way the world is. But it’s not. The world is only like this if people act on the conviction that it is like this.
8/11 This is also, I believe, more a generational problem than a problem of political conviction. Right-wings ‘Cold War warriors’ and left-wing peace activists alike, who were politicised before 1991, carry their ‘realist’ political interpretations over into a changed era.
9/11 I only hope that the post-1991 generations know better than to listen to them and that they listen to those instead who have a genuine interest in the people who live in Eastern Europe and who suffer the consequences of Russian aggression. newrepublic.com/article/165603…
10/11 For the countries between Germany and Russia, the 20th cet meant: political and military aggression, loss of sovereignty, man-made famines, deportations to Siberia, ethnic cleansing, expropriation. Their security concerns are infinitely higher than Russia’s.
11/11 I am very happy that the Baltics are members of NATO and I am deeply saddened that the Ukrainians are not.
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