War in Ukraine and Transformation of Lithuanian Civil-Military Relations

• In Event: War and Changing Perceptions of Security

Abstract

The Ukraine’s war against Russia changed Lithuanian defence policy landscape. Politicians pushed forward and fast-tracked votes concerning issues such as defence budget, civil resistance, procurement and total defence. It supplied Ukraine with weapons, equipment and trained its soldiers. Finally, together with other countries Lithuania launched aggressive lobbying campaign to make defence of Eastern flank the core mission for the NATO.
Changes required painful decisions and it triggered tensions between civil and military circles. The disagreements on issues, like what equipment to give to Ukrainians, total defence and how to work with NATO allies pitted the Chief of Defence against politicians. Their disagreements spilled into the open and started a public debate. The range of issues and bitterness of the debate indicated that Lithuania had serious civil-military crisis, unseen since 1993.
Traditionally, civil-military crises are seen as situations, which had to be avoided. Yet, we could consider such situations as a sign that political system, in this case, democratic one, reached maturity. In the last decade Lithuanian politicians became familiar with military’s work and don’t hesitate to ask more probing questions. While at the same time the growth and development of the military’s self-esteem helped to articulate its priorities and lobby them in public domain. Not surprising, that all of it led to public disagreements. Yet the mere fact of the debate itself, its civility is a sign of emerging culture of public debate and acknowledgment that military has the right to voice its concerns and speak up, when necessary.

Short Bio

Dr Deividas Šlekys is an associate professor at the Vilnius University and the Lithuanian Military Academy, teaching courses on War studies. He holds MLitt. in War Studies, Glasgow University and PhD in political sciences from Vilnius University. Areas of expertise and interest include a history of international relations, civil-military relations, military theory and history, and historical sociology. In 2015, he published a book, Lithuanian military thought and its evolution since 1990. During the 2013-2014 academic year, he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Changing Character of War programme at Oxford University. In 2020, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. Currently, he is working on the book Face of War and a joint Lithuanian, Latvian and Taiwanese research project, “Willingness to Defend”. He is an author of numerous publications about Lithuanian defence policy, armed forces and military thought. The researcher is also involved and works closely with the Lithuanian MoD and Armed Forces on Professional military education and doctrinal development projects. He is also known as one of the major public commentators on the defence issues in Lithuania. Since November 2023, he has been a National Total Defence Coordination Council member chaired by the state’s President.

Author

• Deividas Šlekys, Vilnius University