Ratification of the NATO treaty in the U.S. Senate: lessons learned

In 2004, Lithuania and six other states from the Vilnius 10 group became full-fledged members of NATO and the European Union (EU). These equally important foreign policy achievements mark the already widely recognised Lithuania’s progress in the areas of economic and democratic development. Without degrading the importance of cooperation with many European NATO and EU Member States, the paper mainly focuses on the role of the United States of America (USA), specifically the US Congress, during Lithuania’s integration in the Euro-Atlantic Alliance. Going deep into discussions over NATO expansion, held during the last two stages of expansion, we obviously note that the public debates over NATO expansion received more attention in the US than in other NATO Member States. Unlike in many European members of the Alliance, where decisions on NATO expansion are basically determined by the executive, in the United States these discussions involved a wider group of actors. Non-governmental research organisations participated in this process; however, the US Congress had the highest influence. The paper attempts to have a deeper look at the specific role of the US Congress when shaping the US policy related to the successfully accomplished process of Lithuania’s accession to NATO. The paper presents key observations and the useful lessons of accession to NATO, which determined the historical voting of the US Senate on 8 May 2003, which opened the door to Lithuania and six other European democratic states to this Euro-Atlantic Alliance

Manifestation of sport in programmes of political parties of Lithuania striving to be elected to the parliament of the republic of Lithuania for the term 2016–2020

Research aim: to analyse the statements reflecting the functioning of the national sport system expressed in the programmes of political parties striving to be elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania for the term 2016–2020; to explore the interest of political parties in the development of the sport system; to assess programme statements of the parties to meet the society needs and international directives. Research object focuses on the statements reflecting the functioning of the national sport system expressed in the programmes of political parties striving to be elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania for the term 2016–2020. Research methods. Implementing the research aim, empirical research methods which, referring to the classification proposed by R. Tidikis (2003), are named as document analysis and content analysis have been applied. Conclusions: 1. The quantity of statements reflecting sport policy in the programmes of political parties striving to be elected to the Parliament remains stable. The statements on development of the sport system included into the programmes of political parties are divided into seven groups: education through sport activities in comprehensive education institutions, public health promotion, sport infrastructure, sport for all, sport of the disabled, funding of sport, general. 2. The most expressed group of the statements on sport policy of political parties deals with education through sport activities in comprehensive education institutions; it constitutes almost one third of the statements. The group of public health promotion through sport activities constitutes one fourth of the statements. Statements reflecting development of sport infrastructure include 16% of all sport policy-related statements of political parties. Management of the funding of the sport system was reflected by 13% of the statements.General statements on the functioning of the sport system cover one tenth, statements promoting sport for all – 4%, statements dealing with physical activity and sport of the disabled – 2% of all sport policy-related statements of political parties. 3. The group of parties which are most interested in development of sport consists of Lithuanian Freedom Union (liberals), the Liberal Movement of the Republic of Lithuania and the Labour Party of Lithuania; the highly interested are the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania–Union of Christian Families, the Social Democratic Party of Lithuania, the Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats; the relatively interested are Lithuanian Green Party, the Party of Order and Justice; the relatively uninterested are the Nationalist Union, Lithuanian Peasant and Greens Union, Lithuanian People’s Party, the Party "Young Lithuania"; the uninterested are the Political Party "The Lithuanian List" and Lithuanian Centre Party. 4. The statements on sport policy have been best expressed in the Parliament election programmes for 2016 by Lithuanian Freedom Union (liberals) and the Liberal Movement of the Republic of Lithuania. The agreements of the resolution "On Sport Policy" that has been approved in 2014 were best implemented by Lithuanian Freedom Union (liberals), the Liberal Movement of the Republic of Lithuania and the Labour Party of Lithuania. 5. According to the statements on sport policy manifested in the programme prepared before the elections to the Parliament in 2008, the Labour Party of Lithuania was attributed to the group of the highly interested in the development of sport. This party initiated the approval of the resolution “On Sport Policy” in 2014. 6. The most numerous decline has been found in the programme of the Homeland Union–Lithuanian Christian Democrats. This political party was most interested in development of sport in 2008

Lithuania's participation in the reconstruction process of Afghanistan: a case of a small state's engagement in the international arena

Because the international arena is too focused on the interests of big states as structuring international interactions, small states continue to appear merely as objects (versus subjects) in the eyes of a large number of researchers, sometimes unconsciously following the (neo)realist tradition of International Relations (IR). Consequently, small states appear to be devoid of any analytical interest. In fact, such a trend in the field of IR neglects the significance of ever increasing interactions between states. Moreover, these interactions need not reflect incompatible interests of different states. The article argues that the case of the reconstruction process of Afghanistan, implemented by the international community, presents a positive-sum logic. In other words, the efforts of the coalition in the Afghan territory allow the engaged states, be they big or small, to pursue their own interests. The degree of their contributions corresponds to the benefits their engagement might provide. As the analysis of the Lithuanian case demonstrates, a small state need not be a passive object trapped in the interactions of powerful states and can arrange itself in order to proceed with actively pursuing its own foreign policy