Apprenticeship, partnership, membership: twenty years of defence development in the Baltic states

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ENICDS’s ‘Twenty Years’ project was initiated to mark the first twenty years of the development of the defence establishments of the Baltic states since they regained their independence. Seven authors, defence experts from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and beyond, were invited to cast critical eyes over the performance of the three states in various aspects of defence during this period. The aims of the project were firstly provide an accurate record of recent history, secondly to allow other states undergoing transition to learn from Baltic experience and thirdly, and perhaps most importantly of all, to persuade defence and other officials in the three states themselves to step back and view what they have achieved, as well as the missteps they have taken, and to learn from this as they continue to develop their defence policies and structures in the next twenty years. Although we hope that the book will be a valuable contribution to understanding defence issues in the Baltic states in the last twenty years, it has only scratched the surface of this diverse and complex topic.