Estonia on the Frong Line

Letter from Tallinn

Posted by: Ahto Lobjakas Friday, May 15, 2015 | http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=60096&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRonvKXNZKXonjHpfsX57uQsW6Sg38431UFwdcjKPmjr1YIGRcR0aPyQAgobGp5I5FEIQ7XYTLB2t60MWA%3D%3D

Carnegie Europe's Strategic Europe continues its series devoted to explaining the foreign and security policy ambitions of the 28 EU member states. We have asked our contributors from each capital to give a candid assessment of their country’s perception of security and strategy, with a ranking on a scale from 0 (the laggards) to 5 (the ambitious). This week, the spotlight is on Estonia.

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At first glance, Estonia would appear to be the poster child of a determined Eastern European response to the threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Tallinn ticks all the obvious boxes and then some. Estonia raised its defense expenditure in 2012 to the NATO-required goal of 2 percent of GDP and remains one of the very few European allies (alongside the UK and Greece) to reach that target.