The following chapter dissects the logic behind the Baltic states’ willingness to send their soldiers to US-led military interventions. It does so by consulting a wide range of sources, such as declassified documents, parliamentary debates, and interviews with former senior officials and diplomats. Baltic lawmakers, in justifying these military interventions, often weaved a narrative about democracy promotion and the need to rid the world of authoritarian despots. A closer inspection, however, reveals a different guiding rationalization, one that centers on the notion of small-state status-seeking. The thinking underpinning this phenomenon can be summarized as follows: by deploying their armed forces to perilous conflict zones and supporting US war objectives, junior allies aim to accrue positive social capital in the eyes of their primary security patron. This loyal ally status can then later be leveraged to address their own, more localized, security concerns. For the Baltics, participation in coalition warfare was thus conceived as an upfront cost to ensure that in a time of need, other NATO allies, particularly the United States, would be there for them.