‘Internal’ Security in the Baltic States

Abstract

Since regaining independence, the Baltic states have undergone dramatic transformations in state and society, accompanied by new patterns of economic and social inequality, shifts in legislation and changes in shared and legitimate norms. As a result, new challenges to the security of these states and societies have arisen, calling for revised notions of security among policy makers. Increasingly, notions of security are being employed which extend beyond traditional military meanings to include various ‘inward-looking’ aspects of security and which focus not only on the state, but on the societal — including collective and individual — dimensions of security. It is also increasingly acknowledged that these dimensions of an extended concept of security do not exist in isolation, but interact with each other and with more traditional, external forms of security. In the following discussion we outline some of the new challenges calling for extended concepts of security, in particular crime and minority issues, drawing examples from Estonia with some comparisons to Latvia and Lithuania.