A certain paradox has pervaded German-Baltic relations for decades. Tightly linked through culture, art, education, and, above all, a genuine societal affinity for each other, in the realm of military power, the two sides could not be further apart. Where, over the years, German leadership has emphasized the notion of perpetual peace in Europe and positive transformation through trade, the Baltic states, on the contrary, stuck to the worldview of military power playing a central role in regional affairs. Put differently, despite geographic proximity between Germany and the Baltic states, these relations time and again have fractured along the line of how to best engage Russia. Existing scholarship has already extensively covered Germany’s security ties with other major powers. This essay, in turn, seeks to depart from this conventional practice and instead assess Germany as a security actor through the eyes of small states in the Baltic Sea region, namely Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The following traces and evaluates key inflection points and controversies nestled within the German-Baltic security relationship.
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