Regional Identities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania: Being Baltic, Looking North

The article analyzes ideas about regions in the political language of the presidents of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2014-2018. The analysis argues that a dominant trilateral Baltic regional identity is embedded in geopolitical security concerns and Soviet legacies. The Northern European identity emerges as the second most important regional togetherness in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania alike, by combining security concerns, a similarity of values, and an orientation toward a positive role model among the Nordic states. Eastern Europe is viewed as a region the Baltic states do not belong to and Central European images are nearly non-existent.