Lietuvos - Šiaurės šalių bendradarbiavimas: pokyčiai po 2004 metų NATO ir ES plėtros

• Main Author: Bagdonaitė, Milda
• Other Authors: Jurkynas, Mindaugas
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: Lithuanian; English
• Published: Institutional Repository of Vilnius University 2008
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://repository.vu.lt/VU:ELABAETD2147709&prefLang=en_US

„Lithuania's - Nordic Cooperation: Changes after the EU and NATO Enlargement in 2004“ Since the restoration of independence in 1990 Lithuania has been developing extensive political, military and economic relationship with the Nordic countries. Nordic countries provided Lithuania with political, financial-practical support by which they aimed mainly to promote Lithuania’s integration’s to the EU and NATO goals. Thus, the “dual” enlargement was seen as a challenge to Lithuania’s – Nordic cooperation. In political (Lithuanian and Nordic) levels the “dual” enlargement was accentuated as a possibility to bring a new quality to Lithuania’s-Nordic cooperation. However, some academics were more skeptical and claimed that after the dual enlargement this cooperation could wither away as far as the targets of this cooperation were supposed to be fulfilled with the enlargement. Thus, the problem of the study is formulated as follows: how Lithuania’s – Nordic cooperation has changed after the “dual” enlargement and if Lithuania’s membership in the EU and NATO contributed to the rise of these changes? As far as the topic of the changes of Lithuania’s-Nordic cooperation is rather unexplored in the academic literature, the purpose of the study is formulated as follows: to analyse the changes of political, military and economic Lithuania’s – Nordic cooperation after the “dual” enlargement and to evaluate the impact of the “dual” enlargement to the uprise of these changes. Lithuania’s – Nordic political, military and economic cooperation is chosen as an object of the analysis. In order to fulfill the purpose of the study the following objectives were formulated: •To introduce the explanation of international cooperation formulated by two theoretical approaches – neorealism and pliuralism; •To analyze how the projections of Lithuania’s – Nordic cooperation were drafted on the declaratory level before as well as after the “dual” enlargement; •To discuss the main features of Lithuania’s – Nordic political, military and economic cooperation till the “dual” enlargement and to evaluate the changes of this cooperation that occurred after the enlargement; •To evaluate the changes of Lithuania’s- Nordic political, military and economic cooperation after the “dual” enlargement, to summarize them and, while relating the discussed changes with the factor of the EU and NATO enlargement, to list conclusions and to suggest recommendations for the forthcoming Lithuania’s - Nordic cooperation. In the study five states were regarded as the Nordic countries, namely – Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland. After having fulfilled the objectives of the study some conclusions were made. The most important among them are: •After the “dual” enlargement Lithuania’s – Nordic political, military and economic cooperation gained new features, started moving towards more symmetrical cooperation, and this signifies a new quality of this cooperation; •After the enlargement the optimization of multi-dimensional Baltic-Nordic cooperation was enacted, and the growth of the importance of NB8 cooperation format became apparent. •“Dual” enlargement provided Lithuania and Nordic countries with a possibility to cooperate on a new (EU) level, where they can try to exert their structural power, try to attract EU’s attention and resources to the Baltic Sea region. •After the “dual” enlargement the congruence of the so-called Eastern vector in Lithuania’s and Nordic countries’ foreign policy became apparent. Some recommendations to the forthcoming Lithuania’s- Nordic cooperation were made as well. It was above all suggested that for the time being Lithuania does not exhaust all the possibilities available for this cooperation and that it is worth to strengthen this cooperation in many spheres due to the congruence of many interests of these states and due to the possibility of being better seen in the international community by acting together and the like.