Comparing strategic cultures of selected member states of the Three Seas Initiative

Abstract

The article describes and compares strategic cultures of selected member states of the Three Seas Initiative (Poland, Romania, the Baltic states, Hungary and Croatia) by indicating both their convergences and divergences. The author has focused on the following three elements of strategic culture: the direction of transformation of armed forces, the preferred direction of foreign policy cooperation (Atlantic vs. European), and relations with the Russian Federation. The research methods comprised analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation. The author has paid special attention to analysing a range of documents and reports describing the national security strategies of the selected countries, their military strategies and operational concepts, including the following: The National Security Concept of Estonia, The Polish Foreign Policy Strategy 2017–2021, The Military Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania, The Republic of Croatia National Security Strategy, The Croatian Armed Forces Long-Term Development Plan 2015–2024, The Military Strategy of Romania – Modern Armed Forces for a Powerful Romania within Europe and Around the World, The Defence Concept of the Republic of Poland, and The National Defence Strategy of Estonia. In developing this paper, reference was also made to publications released by other authors researching strategic cultures, including Marion Smith, Andrew Korybko and Jacek Bartosiak. The presented research results indicate that strategic cultures of the selected member states of the Three Seas Initiative exhibit more similarities than differences. Similarities were identified as regards transformation of armed forces, foreign policy inclinations and threat perception, while differences were found to refer mainly to relations with the Russian Federation. The conclusions formulated in the article can serve as the starting point to further investigations into the relevance of cooperation within the Three Seas Initiative.