The Baltic States as Members: Accord and Discord in the EU and NATO

Attaining full membership in the EU and NATO in 2004, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have been active members with major accomplishments in several policy areas. In terms of transitions and early membership, the Baltic states represent a case of multiple variables operating in a condensed time frame. Subsequently, the evolving Russian challenge, from Georgia in 2008 to the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the massive invasion of Ukraine in 2022, brought to the fore convergent and divergent Western state-and-institutional optics and approaches with regard to an appropriate response. The chapter explores the background to the Baltic states’ integration in a changing transatlantic and European security environment and discusses the ways in which the Baltics’ roles and policy objectives in their new EU and NATO contexts interact with other state interests and broader architectural designs.