Strategic culture and small states

Abstract

When Austria, Finland and Sweden joined the European Union (EU) in 1995, and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania followed suit in 2004, commentators warned that the former's non-aligned status and the latter's pro-American stance would act as a brake on the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Looking at the years since their accession, this chapter shows that Austria, Finland and Sweden covertly redefined their neutrality and that Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania cautiously realigned their loyalty. But the new member states not only downloaded European strategic preferences; they also uploaded domestically identified threats and strategies to the EU level, influencing the CSDP's agenda and course of action. This indicates that strategic culture – both on a domestic and European level – is rather fluid and that – at least in the field of security and defence policy – there does not have to be a trade-off between widening and deepening.