| Abstract [eng] |
Parliamentary diplomacy is seen as an alternative and diverse form of diplomacy that has gradually become an essential and effective tool for cooperation and communication between states.. Recent political trends have enabled parliamentary diplomacy to become a visible, distinct body in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy and diplomacy. In order to find examples of parliamentary diplomacy in Lithuania, this paper attempts to analyse the recent widely publicised relationship between Lithuania and Germany on the issue of the German brigade in Lithuania. It is therefore assumed that, at the same time, diplomacy between parliamentarians from different countries was also taking place. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the political process of how and why the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, its committees and individual members of the Seimas conducted active parliamentary diplomacy on the issue of the German brigade in Lithuania. Two hypotheses are put forward in this thesis: 1) the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania conducted active parliamentary diplomacy with Germany because of: the personal goals, desires and ambitions of individual members of the Seimas; the practices and traditions of the Seimas; the international situation and the threat to Lithuania's security; and 2) the active parliamentary diplomacy conducted by Lithuania became one of the most important factors in the decision of Germany to deploy the entire brigade to Lithuania for a permanent presence. To test these hypotheses, a process-tracing approach is used, which allows to discover mutual causal driving factors and to test the correspondence between factors. This thesis develops a distinctive theoretical model, derived from institutionalism, which has a clear explanatory power in analysing the motivations and reasons for the institution's active parliamentary diplomacy. Operationalising the three theoretical strands of institutionalism, it can be argued that a member of the Seimas may engage in active parliamentary diplomacy because of: 1) the personal wishes, goals and ambitions of individual members of the Seimas; 2) the continuation of the practices and traditions of the Seimas; 3) the international situation and the threat to the security of Lithuania. Given the aim of the study, it was decided to use two qualitative methods of data collection - media content analysis and semi-structured interviews. A process-tracing approach, based on the developed scheme, led to the discovery of a black box, which allowed to draw conclusions: 1) The first hypothesis was partially confirmed by stating that although not all respondents explicitly named, or did not mention, all three factors, from their statements and examples of active parliamentary diplomacy, it is possible to state that the theoretical model is working and that the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania has been conducting active parliamentary diplomacy with Germany because of: the personal goals, desires, and ambitions of individual members of the Lithuanian Parliament; the practice and traditions of the Lithuanian Parliament; the international situation and the threat to the Lithuanian security; 2) The hypothesis was not confirmed. Although the parliamentary dimension was dominant in the public discourse in Lithuania, it did not have a significant impact on both Lithuanian and German institutions, especially on decision-making. However, parliamentary diplomacy was an important factor in the exchange of official or unofficial information with the German parliamentarians, creating a certain background and broadcasting the message about the situation in Lithuania, the objectives and the desire to have a full brigade in Lithuania for a permanent presence. These strategies differed between parliamentarians and were an important factor in party diplomacy in the exchange of information and personal contacts. |
