Guarding the Fire: Identity, Sovereignty, and Energy Policy in Eastern Europe

As soon as they turned away from their Soviet satellite past, the young democracies in Eastern Europe looked for economic and security support in the West. The application for EU membership, however, meant difficult decisions balancing identity-derived national interest and state security considerations. This paper explains how, once disentangled, the quest for national identity and state sovereignty encouraged Lithuania and the Czech Republic to accept compromises with regard to their autonomy, in exchange for the promise of improved control and legitimacy in the context of common energy policy. I point to identity as a crucial factor in determining the general direction of a nation’s foreign policy, but also suggest that the commitment to state security and flexibility in striking sovereignty bargains made the support for common energy policy a plausible solution.