The Joint Baltic American National Committee, Inc. (JBANC) has launched a new online platform The Baltic Journey to NATO: Exploring the role of civil society, diaspora, governments, and media, which highlights the milestones of the events that led to a successful NATO enlargement and membership for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The project is supported by a NATO Public Diplomacy Division grant. The site is accessible at: https://jbanc.org/nato.
The exhibit features a timeline of key dates and events that led to the Baltic inclusion into NATO in 2004 and explores a variety of decisions made by the Baltic and the U.S. governments. It also provides an in-depth look at the role of civil society and Baltic-American organizations such as JBANC, and how they played a vital part in the process of enlargement. The timeline provides plenty of historic records – photos, documents, and media pieces.
For instance, some of the historic records include letters to and from the U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Records also demonstrate the persistent activity of the Baltic-American community, which actively communicated with members of the U.S. Congress, and in organizing events and mobilizing support for NATO enlargement.
“Ten years of hard work in advocacy for the Baltic-American community culminated in an inevitably successful ratification vote in the U.S. Senate in 2003 and accession to the North Atlantic alliance in 2004. Those were events and lessons that should not be forgotten,” highlights Karl Altau, Managing Director of JBANC.
The goal of the platform is to promote and expand the knowledge of NATO enlargement within the public in the United States and other transatlantic community countries, promoting NATO as a cornerstone in ensuring the safety of the transatlantic community, and highlighting how the admission of the Baltic countries made the transatlantic community more vital and prosperous. The exhibit hopefully serves as a reflection of the importance of NATO back then and provides lessons for the future, particularly in dealing with newer threats in such areas as cyber security and disinformation.