Students’ research. The Significance and Challenges of Perceptions of External Identity for Lithuanian Foreign Policy

Project idea

In the wake of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, the public debate on the expertise of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and other states in the region on (regional) security issues, as well as the ongoing debates on the need to focus greater attention to historical memory in Europe, indicate that attitudes towards the significance and identities of Lithuania and the other above-mentioned states may be changing. At the same time, it is understood that it is very important to maintain a balance between how Lithuania and other states in the region perceive themselves and how other states, especially partners, perceive them. This research aims to analyse how Lithuania's external perception of its identity is changing in the context of Russia's military aggression against Ukraine. To achieve this, the following objectives will be implemented: a review of the literature on national identity and its constituent elements, the identity of small states, including Lithuania's identity and its relationship to foreign policy and the influence of evaluations/perceptions by others on the significance of the state in international relations. As a next step, a theoretical framework will be formulated to evaluate the external perception of state identity. Furthermore, interviews will be conducted with experts from Lithuanian partner states whose field of specialisation is Lithuania or other states in the region under analysis. Based on them, data on how external perceptions of Lithuania's identity are changing in the context of Russia's military aggression in Ukraine will be collected, analysed and presented. The research results will provide a better understanding of the meaning and effectiveness of Lithuania's foreign policy actions.