Germany and the Baltic States: Being Ready to Die for Freedom [Part 1]

For the first part of a two-part special, Ben and Aaron are joined this week by an all-star panel of Baltic politicians, including Marko Mihkelson and Žygimantas Pavilionis – who chair the Foreign Affairs Committees in Estonian and Lithuanian Parliament, respectively – along with Artis Pabriks, a former Foreign, Defense, and Deputy Prime Minister of Latvia. We discuss the differences in Baltic and German memory culture, attitudes to the military and to the defence of freedom - and how that plays into the ways Germany views Russia, Ukraine, and the Baltic states. We also look at how the Baltics view German commitments to Ukraine and how Baltic small state leadership sets an example Germany can look at on everything from digitalisation to China policy and enlargement of both NATO and the EU.  

Part 2 features and extended interview with German Baltic expert Prof. Ulrike von Hirschhausen.