Lithuania‘s Security and Defence in 2017–2018: the International Context and New Research. Preface

The Research Centre of the General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, alongside its partners at Vilnius University and Vytautas Magnus University, present their readers with the sixteenth volume of the Lithuanian Annual Strategic Review, devoted to the security and defence topicalities of Lithuania and the Baltics in 2017-2018. As is typical each year, the period from fall 2017 to the end of summer 2018 was rich in developments important for the security and defence of Lithuania. The probability of changes at the level of the international system was primarily associated with the change in the USA administration and Donald Trump’s term in office. During the electoral campaign, the future president, contrary to his predecessors, assessed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization rather critically and claimed that the contribution of European allies to the enhancement of the defensive capabilities of the Alliance are too small. Trump’s position had a dual impact on the development of the European security. On one hand, it encouraged Europeans, among them Lithuania, to start increasing defence financing. On the other hand, it served as an additional impulse to make further steps to the European integration in the area of defence. At the end of 2017, the European Union began to implement the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty on Permanent Structured Cooperation. Certainly, it is a small, but nevertheless important, step towards closer European cooperation. This is particularly significant keeping in mind the on-going separation of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Brexit) and the unclear perspective of this important country. This time, Lithuania, without nagging doubts, also confirmed its intention to participate in the cooperation, and even undertook the initiative, to establish rapid reaction teams for responding to cyberattacks. Meanwhile, during the discussed period, at the level of the international system and within the European security space, dynamic processes were taking place. In the eastern neighbourhoods of Lithuania one could observe the opposite picture, i.e. paraphrasing Erich Maria Remarque “Im Osten Nichts Neues”. The political and military tension between Russia and the Western world was still lingering or, for all we know, Russia’s “hybrid warfare” against