Permanent periphery of Baltic States

ENThe article analyses the efforts of the Baltic States, three peripheral states, in the eastern part of Europe, to find the settled relation with the European core and distance themselves from Russia, the constant threat in their-security imaginaries. Periphery is not a stable category; but a condition which is reused and reformulated, thus, chapter seeks to go deeper into how the process of finding the space and place in Europe and regarding Russia takes place. This process is analysed as a relationship between centre-periphery where the focus is on the actions of the periphery. The article proceeds as follows: first, it discusses two theoretical concepts of periphery and liminality, second, it explains in what sense Baltic states are constructed as liminal and the importance of the category of Eastern Europe in thinking about liminality, and third, it analyses the strategies of the Baltic states to move out of liminal condition. These strategies focus on creating the representations of the reliable peripheries which are able to actively shape their subject position and formulate their own initiatives and ideas though never ever trying to become what they cannot - the centre. Serija (Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe).