by Pavel Petrov, University of Helsinki
What is resilience and what is its societal dimension according to the Baltic states, where both concepts are so enthusiastically employed in public discussion? To explore common interpretations of these notions, I have investigated several recent documents adopted by the Baltic Assembly (BA), the Baltic Council of Ministers (BCM), and the Baltic Council (BC), a joint platform constituted by the first two. All three of these organizations function, within a shared framework, as forums for interparliamentary and intergovernmental cooperation between the member states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. Therefore, their adopted documents are particularly suitable to explore a common Baltic interpretation of societal resilience. In the following blog post, I will take a closer look at cases where societal resilience was explicitly discussed by the BA during last year’s Session.
Recently the subject of societal resilience was extensively discussed at the pan-Baltic level, when the BA convened on 27–28 November in Riga for its 41st Session and, together with the BCM, for the 28th BC. “Fostering a strong and united Baltic society” was one of the three main topics discussed during the Session, alongside “building a resilient, interconnected and closely coordinated energy systems in the Baltic States.” Further in the preamble, the Session underlined that “the vital role of societal resilience of the Baltic States,” describing it as “a prerequisite for ensuring the preparedness of the society to resist threats of various kinds.” As such, the resolution designated “war, propaganda, disinformation, anti-democratic sentiment, division and others” as pressing issues in the current international environment. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, with such an extensive and heterogeneous variety of challenges in mind, culture was highlighted as being “at the core of societal resilience.”
Resilient societies are considered significant in “strengthening the security situation.”
Societal resilience is also integrated into the BA’s vision of defense cooperation. The resolution calls on parliaments and governments of the member states, as well as the BCM, “to construct a practical response to increase the resilience of the Baltic societies”. Resilient societies are considered significant in “strengthening the security situation.” More specific propositions for societal resilience policy making, touching upon one of the challenges mentioned above, are presented in the part regarding the exchange of information between the Baltic states. There, the BA suggests to jointly agree on a white paper about the strategic goals in media competencies and media literacy in the region to fight disinformation and increase social resilience. To improve media literacy, the resolution encourages states to evaluate the possibility of introducing a joint program for this purpose. To promote what might be considered media competence, the resolution endorses the idea of negotiating a common Baltic information platform serving as a reliable source of knowledge of the events and developments in the region, provided in their three national languages, as well as Russian and English.
Societal, or social, resilience is therefore explicitly discussed by the BA only in terms of defense and information exchange cooperation. Particularly in the latter case, the resolution provides a more detailed perspective on a challenge that societal resilience is supposed to cope with, namely disinformation. Concrete measures for enhancing the common Baltic societal resilience potential in that direction are also suggested. The scope can be extended to include propaganda, which is frequently and closely associated with disinformation and, in the Baltic context – anti-democratic sentiments. Therefore, this could also include divisions, if we assume them as political, e.g., questioning of democratic principles by parts of society.
As previously mentioned, culture is declared to be at the core of societal resilience. With this phrasing, it is only reasonable to expect a certain preference provided for the subject. However, the resolution leaves the statement without any further clarifications or elaborations. Otherwise, culture is discussed in the very last section in terms of cooperation, mixing with measures to minimize an environmental footprint. Still, one can get an idea of culture’s function and place in the BA’s vision of societal resilience by looking at certain propositions. Most noticeably it is displayed in the encouragement to demonstrate the unity, solidarity, and cultural ties between the Baltic states by allocating additional resources to the Baltic Culture Fund, thus securing the continuity and quality of cultural projects financed by it. This might be interpreted as an effort to maintain the resilience of culture itself. Consequently, keeping in mind the BA’s motivation for additional resources, one of the primary roles of culture can be regarded as facilitating the sense of Baltic cohesion as a region and identity as a trilateral community. This, in turn, appears instrumental for a strong and united Baltic society that the BA aspires to foster. Ultimately, media literacy and competence may be included in a broader understanding of culture.
The notion of societal resilience is conceptualized by the BA’s 41st Session as a salient component of ensuring the capability of the Baltic societies to resist a variety of challenges.
Resilience in general and its societal dimension in particular stands out at the top of Baltic cooperation’s agenda. The notion of societal resilience is conceptualized by the BA’s 41st Session as a salient component of ensuring the capability of the Baltic societies to resist a variety of challenges. The majority of these challenges may in fact be considered closely associated with information distribution and consumption, such as disinformation, propaganda, and by extension – anti-democratic sentiments and political divisions. Culture, designated as the core of societal resilience, appears to be regarded mainly in terms of a fixative for the sense of a trilateral Baltic community.
- This blog is a part of a blog series written by the BAMSE Riga intensive course students. The blog series analyses the concept of resilience from five different viewpoints: democracy in crises, regional responses, social consequences, relevance of history politics and cultural approaches. This blog belongs to the regional responses part of the blog series. Read more about the blog series on Bamse News & Events website.