The Nordic Countries and the European Security and Defence Policy

366 THE NORDIC COUNTRIES, THEIR REGION AND EUROPEpredictable, 7 is widely shared by the new members of NATO and the EU. Justas democracy is not the best but the least deficient political system, however,security alliances are the best option available—and, in awareness of theirdefects, ‘it can never hurt to have the USA as a friend’. Thus, Estonia, Latviaand Lithuania will do ‘everything, everything’ 8 to enhance and enforce theirrelationship with their most important ally, the USA.This chapter looks in turn at definitions of national security (section II);definitions and perceptions of threat (section III); Russia as a hard security issue(section IV); providers of national security in the Baltic (section V); and theBaltic approach to the ESDP and the role of the Nordic countries (section VI).Conclusions are given in section VII.II. Definitions of national securityThe classic elements of the Westphalian state provide the backbone of definitionsof national security in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 9 The newly gainedindependence which made possible the three countries’ return to Europe, to theWest or to ‘Yule-land’ 10 is sacrosanct. The state is the focus and the referentobject. Sovereignty and territorial integrity are to be preserved and protectedalong with their dividends: democracy and the market economy; constitutionalorder; and public safety. Security is understood as a broad spectrum of issuesdivided into hard and soft security. A two-tier hierarchy persists, where the distinctionis between political and military issues in the principal tier, and economic,environmental and other dimensions as secondary issues. The principaltier includes issues that affect the state directly, while the secondary factorshave an impact on the state by affecting the political and military sectors. Whilethe first-tier issues—sovereignty and territorial integrity—are identical for allthree states, the second-tier priorities vary from country to country. They generallyinclude such issues as economic security, protection of the country’s naturalenvironment, integration of society, protection of human rights and protectionof the long-term development of the state and society. The essence of7 Davies, N., Rising ’44: The Battle for Warsaw (Pan Books: London, 2004), p. 620. According toDavies, the Warsaw rising demonstrated ‘that great powers may have democracy on the tip of their tonguesbut not always on the tip of their priorities. Anyone who joins them should not expected to be treatedas an equal, or to see their interests fully defended.’8 Interviews (note 1).9 Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ‘National Security Concept of the Republic of Estonia (2004)’,Tallinn, 14 July 2004, URL ; Latvian Ministry of ForeignAffairs, ‘National Security Concept’, Riga, 24 Jan. 2002, URL ; and Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence (MOND), National Security Strategy of the Republicof Lithuania (MOND: Vilnius, 2002), URL . The LithuanianNational Security Strategy is undergoing revision. Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence, ‘Lithuaniaestablishes new guidelines for ensuring national security’, Press release, 6 Oct. 2004, URL .10 Ilves, T. H., Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, ‘Estonia as a Nordic country’, Speech, SwedishInstitute for International Affairs, Stockholm, 14 Dec. 1999, URL . ‘Yule-land’ refers to the north European culture to which Estonia is assumed to belong.