In Search for Recognition: Lithuanian Foreign Policy 2015-2024

Project idea

Lithuania's foreign policy in recent years has undoubtedly been characterised by memorable decisions and activism that set it apart from other small and developed countries. This trend raises the questions of what has led to such a foreign policy, how successfully or unsuccessfully it has adapted to changing external and domestic circumstances and inquire on the reasons for its successes and failures.

This project aims to demonstrate, by researching Lithuanian foreign policy from 2015 to 2024, applying the status-seeking behaviour analysis and ontological security theory, how a small state is developing an activist foreign policy in the face of the constraints and threats from the international environment and trying to overcome its ontological anxieties.

The objectives of the research are:
1) to analyse the main foreign policy trends for the period 2015-2024;
2) to explore the strategic representations of Lithuanian foreign policy through discourse analysis;
3) to analyse and evaluate the Lithuanian foreign policy instruments, decision-making mechanisms and implementation;
4) to conduct four in-depth case studies using process tracing: on managing the Russian threat; analysis of Lithuania's Eastern policy; the shift towards the Indo-Pacific; and balancing the EU and US interests.