Can small states wage proxy wars? A closer look at Lithuania’s military aid to Ukraine

Bibliographic Data

ID8911282
AuthorsVytautas Isoda (0000-0001-6631-9039, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume59
Issue1
Pages3-22
Publication date2022-09-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/00108367221116532
OpenAlexW4294238428
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited59

Proxy wars are an increasingly common feature of great power competition in the 21st century. In this context, the role of the small states is less clear and has not been properly addressed in the academic literature. Although states of this type have often been chosen as battlegrounds for such wars and have even acted as proxies for the superpowers, this article argues that they are also capable of conducting proxy warfare themselves. Since the start of the 2014 conflict in Donbas, Eastern Ukraine, this country has experienced proxy interventions from many external actors, both large and small, that provided resources to both conflict parties. One of the smallest states which has been trying to affect the course of this conflict in support of the Ukrainian government is Lithuania. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with the security and defence policy-makers in Vilnius, the article aims to explain why Lithuania is punching above its weight and interfering with this conflict from backstage. The empirical evidence points to an almost perfect alignment of interests between the current governments in Kiev and Vilnius in that they both see Russia as their long-term ‘enemy’ which makes Ukraine a surprisingly suitable proxy for Lithuania to exploit

Adversary · Computer security · Development economics · Economics · Exploit · Political economy · Political science · Proxy (statistics · Sociology · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · Post-Soviet Geopolitical Dynamics

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