<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The occupation of Crimea and war in Eastern Ukraine brought minority issues to the top of the Baltic security agenda. Although experts estimate that a separatist scenario for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is not probable, the issue of national minorities has already been included into the security concept as a potential source of danger to stability and national identity. While there is need to analyze political risks in the Baltics, the concept of securitization will be applied to the topic of national minorities. This paper addresses the problem of national minorities’ political integration and loyalty to the state. For the empirical analysis, the paper will use secondary data of surveys conducted in 2014-2017, exposing opinions and beliefs of minorities in the Baltic States referring to their domestic and foreign policies, NATO, Ukrainian crisis and relations with Russia. As a result, the concluding suggestion is made that more attention should be paid to political cohesion and minority policy management: 1) to optimize the minority development; 2) to predict potential risks in the region, and 3) to prevent further threats from Russia.</p></abstract>

The occupation of Crimea and war in Eastern Ukraine brought minority issues to the top of the Baltic security agenda. Although experts estimate that a separatist scenario for Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is not probable, the issue of national minorities has already been included into the security concept as a potential source of danger to stability and national identity. While there is need to analyze political risks in the Baltics, the concept of securitization will be applied to the topic of national minorities. This paper addresses the problem of national minorities’ political integration and loyalty to the state. For the empirical analysis, the paper will use secondary data of surveys conducted in 2014-2017, exposing opinions and beliefs of minorities in the Baltic States referring to their domestic and foreign policies, NATO, Ukrainian crisis and relations with Russia. As a result, the concluding suggestion is made that more attention should be paid to political cohesion and minority policy management: 1) to optimize the minority development; 2) to predict potential risks in the region, and 3) to prevent further threats from Russia.

The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States

Institute of East-Central Europe (IESW) in Lublin

Baltic Journal of Law & Politics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States"}

The occupation of Crimea and war in Eastern Ukraine brought minority issues to the top of the Baltic security agenda. Although experts estimate that a...

The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States

Published Online: Mar 07, 2018

Page range: 26 - 45

Received: Aug 02, 2017

Accepted: Dec 11, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0011

Keywords
National minorities, Baltic States, Russia, security, state stability, integration

© 2017 Aleksandra Kuczyńska-Zonik, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The Securitization of National Minorities in the Baltic States

Published Online: Mar 07, 2018

Page range: 26 - 45

Received: Aug 02, 2017

Accepted: Dec 11, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/bjlp-2017-0011

KeywordsNational minorities, Baltic States, Russia, security, state stability, integration

© 2017 Aleksandra Kuczyńska-Zonik, published by De Gruyter Open

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Keywords
National minorities, Baltic States, Russia, security, state stability, integration