Characteristics Of The Baltic States
1. The Baltic States
Apart from historical overlap, the countries’ characteristics share several similarities (see Appendix I) in terms of population and country size and income per capita. They have also all adopted the principle of liberal democracy and are now market economies, have experienced nearly equal income growth rates and their constitutions and political frameworks show much resemblance (Ketels, 2006).
The Baltic States are sometimes called the Baltic Tigers because of economic progress. The term is derived from the Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and the Celtic Tiger (Ireland), which have experienced similar economic growth rates in the past. The economic progress of the Baltic Tigers started …show more content…
From the 13th century until 1721 Estonia and Latvia has been occupied by Germanic and Scandinavian rulers while up to 1795 Lithuania was first an independant duchy and then part of the large state of Poland-Lithuania. As a result Latvia and Estonia adopted the western values at earlier times than Lithuania, but Lithuania was able to emerge as a major political power of the region and became part of Poland-Lithuania. During this period the Baltic States’ education, law, science, religion, social life and culture were highly influenced by Germanic, Scandinavian and Polish rulers and the Baltic Sea trade. In the 18th century the Baltic States all became part of the Russian Empire until the end of the First World War. (Historyofnations; …show more content…
At an early stage Latvia has succeeded in including Riga in the route and recently Lithuania has secured their goal of including a Kaunas-Vilnius connection to option 2. There already seems to be concensus to go with option 2 which is symbolically stronger for the three states and the EU. It connects the countries with the rest of the EU on the European gauge and breaks with the Russian gauge, and with a higher speed it brings the Baltic States into the 21st century. Yet this also creates conflict with actors with vested interests in the Baltic-Russian connections among which are train operators that make their profit from freight between Russia and the Baltic ports, and with Russia that seems to have been using geopolitical means to put negative pressure on the project such as banning Lithuanian dairy from the Russian market on health inspection claims. Yet “the growling Russian bear is making the strongest possible argument for Rail Baltica” and the Baltic States seem to settle their differences because, not inspite, of Russian pressure (The Economist,
Apart from historical overlap, the countries’ characteristics share several similarities (see Appendix I) in terms of population and country size and income per capita. They have also all adopted the principle of liberal democracy and are now market economies, have experienced nearly equal income growth rates and their constitutions and political frameworks show much resemblance (Ketels, 2006).
The Baltic States are sometimes called the Baltic Tigers because of economic progress. The term is derived from the Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) and the Celtic Tiger (Ireland), which have experienced similar economic growth rates in the past. The economic progress of the Baltic Tigers started …show more content…
From the 13th century until 1721 Estonia and Latvia has been occupied by Germanic and Scandinavian rulers while up to 1795 Lithuania was first an independant duchy and then part of the large state of Poland-Lithuania. As a result Latvia and Estonia adopted the western values at earlier times than Lithuania, but Lithuania was able to emerge as a major political power of the region and became part of Poland-Lithuania. During this period the Baltic States’ education, law, science, religion, social life and culture were highly influenced by Germanic, Scandinavian and Polish rulers and the Baltic Sea trade. In the 18th century the Baltic States all became part of the Russian Empire until the end of the First World War. (Historyofnations; …show more content…
At an early stage Latvia has succeeded in including Riga in the route and recently Lithuania has secured their goal of including a Kaunas-Vilnius connection to option 2. There already seems to be concensus to go with option 2 which is symbolically stronger for the three states and the EU. It connects the countries with the rest of the EU on the European gauge and breaks with the Russian gauge, and with a higher speed it brings the Baltic States into the 21st century. Yet this also creates conflict with actors with vested interests in the Baltic-Russian connections among which are train operators that make their profit from freight between Russia and the Baltic ports, and with Russia that seems to have been using geopolitical means to put negative pressure on the project such as banning Lithuanian dairy from the Russian market on health inspection claims. Yet “the growling Russian bear is making the strongest possible argument for Rail Baltica” and the Baltic States seem to settle their differences because, not inspite, of Russian pressure (The Economist,