3/09/2007
Lieven: The Baltic Revolution
Anatol Lieven: The Baltic Revolution - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence
Anatol Lieven: The Baltic Revolution - Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to IndependencePaperback: 454 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press 1993
ISBN: 0-300-05552-8
Written right after the baltic revolutions in 1993, Lieven's book should be judged by our contemporary view, benefitting from hindsight, only partially. Lieven's pessimism seems justified when one looks at the long history of the Baltic region and its many struggles on its cultural border. However, the republics, now member states of both EU and Nato and firmly integrated to the West are no longer "debatable territory". Now the goal, for Estonia for example is to become one of the five richest nations in Europe. Mission in surviving post-communist chaos has turned in a very short period of time into a mission showing the way for the rest of Europe. An achievement worth applauding and an experience worth exporting.
Anatol Lieven, the author of Ethical Realism (2007), a book I believe gathers the best of Realist IR theory and plain common sense, works for the New America Foundation.
"Diplomacy should certainly be inspired by morality, but its chief moral duty lies in the avoidance of evil consequences, not in the celebration of fine ideals." p. 380
Second Opinion: Czeslaw Milosz / The New York Review of Books
¶ 3/09/2007 06:32:00 ip.
