Super Atlanticist in the EU? Vilnius Between Washington and Brussels

Abstract

When in the early 2000s, the European Union prepared to take in a host of Central and Eastern European countries, some policy observers were quick to assert that the newcomers, given their staunch Atlanticism, would increase the US political clout in the EU’s corridors of power. Sceptics, on the other hand, pushed back by contending that with the deepening of the EU integration process, the foreign and security policies of Central-Eastern Europe would eventually align closer with Brussels. This article, using Lithuania as a case study, seeks to reflect on how these competing hypotheses have panned out in practice. The analysis concludes that Lithuania, despite being institutionally anchored in the EU, has sought to retain its special relations with Washington, thus occasionally causing some disruption to the EU’s consensus. Stated differently, it has exhibited the behaviour of a super atlanticist. Lithuania, the United States, the EU, Alliances, Super Atlanticism