| Abstract [eng] |
The Dilemma of the Agent and Structure Influence: Foreign Policy of V. Adamkus and D. Grybauskaitė The research paper „ The Dilemma of the Agent – Structure Influence: Foreign Policy of V. Adamkus and D. Grybauskaitė“ seeks to find out, at what extent the leader of the state is able to change well – established foreign policy which is limited by structural factors and deliberately cahnging national interests. In order to achieve this objective, four main goals are formulated as follow: in the framework of the „agent-structure“ theory to reveal the possibilities of foreign policy action as well as to find out the charasteristic of small states behaviour in internetional relations; in the framework of the theory which has been chosen, to evaluate the foreign policy of the President Valdas Adamkus of his second Presidency term; throughout the analysis of the foreign policy of Dalia Grybauskaitė (2009 – 2015), to reveal the extent of which the foreign policy of Lithuania has changed in relation to the impact of the new leader and to evaluate the impact to this change of other factors; to compare the foreign policy strategies of V. Adamkus and D. Grybauskaitė, in consideration with their personal features, values and the impact of structutal factors limitation. Theoretical part of the thesis is based on the scientific literature and articles, in the pricipal part the semi – structural interview survey data is analysed in parallel with the annual reports of the Presidency, offical speeches of the Presidents as well as with the legislation, resolutions, scientific articles, and the media reports. The main objectives which are implemented in the second part of the thesis, confirm the feasibility of theoretical model to measure the impact of the agent and structure for the decisions of foreign policy. This analysis confirms the thesis statement, which says that the leader of the country posess the significant impact for the forign policy decisions, but the foreign policy choices are highly restricted by the structural factors, which finally become the reasons which do the impact for the foreign policy strategies, the most. This statement is confirmed after the measurement that eventhough the President D. Grybauskaitė at her first presidential term has been trying to change the course of Lithuania‘s foreign policy, she had to return the tradition foreign policy guidelines because of the the objective conditions. For the future analysis, more factors which cause the change of the foreign policy guidelines could be analysed: the impact of the historical memory, the public opinion as well as the congruence of the ideology and values of the governing coalition or party and the leader. |
