| Abstract [eng] |
The Ukraine crisis better known as Maidan is a power struggle between factions within Ukraine. One of the factions wants to align with the European Union and the other with Russia. In March of 2014, the current crisis erupted when Russian special forces occupied Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. Russia also invaded Eastern parts of Ukraine – Donetsk, and Luhansk. Between 2014-2019 a military conflict between Ukrainian soldiers and Russian-backed separatists continued and more than 13 000 people were killed. Throughout the time international actors made an effort to solve the conflict within Normandy format which involves four members – Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany and in 2015 Minsk agreements have been signed. However, Ukraine-Russia war is still an ongoing conflict and it is problematic to forecast its ending. What is more, it is an internationalized conflict that involves not only opposing actors but third parties as well. For example, Lithuania. The third party's role is not a new topic within a field of conflict resolution. Earlier researches pose a question about actors' strategy, its efficiency, who could intervene in a conflict. Nevertheless, it does not discuss possible reasons for intervention, and it does not answer the question of why third parties get involved in a conflict. Although, numerous researches on third parties in post-soviet space has been made. It discusses why the European Union, Russia, and the United States of America intervened in post-soviet conflicts. The most common answer is that they were dividing their sphere of influence. Russia tries to recreate some kind of the Soviet Union while the United States and European Union declares bringing democracy, peace, and stability. Meanwhile, Lithuania's involvement is described as an entirely geopolitical decision. All the same, these researches discuss the only strategic level of the party's involvement in a conflict and it does not bring mezzo level arguments into consideration. Mezzo level narrative is important because it brings a new perspective into the light as well as possibly missed information while formulating macro-level narrative. Based on earlier researches and lacking mezzo level explanation for third party intervention this master's thesis poses a question why or for what reasons Lithuania intervene in a Ukraine-Russia war? It refers to the theoretical perspective suggested by Fen Osler Hampson and his possible explanation for the third force involved in a conflict. F. O. Hampson explains potential strategies and goals as a distinction between realism and liberalism. Considering the theoretical approach this thesis formulates a statement of defense that the governmental sector argues that Lithuania intervenes for governance-based reasons and nongovernmental representative argues that their intervention is based on the social-psychological approach. Given the complex nature of the topic under study, a case study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews and content analysis seemed most appropriate. 18 interviews were conducted in April of 2020 as well as 307 press releases from a period between 21st November 2013-31st December 2019 have been analyzed in this research. Participants for this research have been selected based on public information about their workplace. Some names have been removed from the thesis. The findings of this study showed that in this particular situation mezzo level narrative conforms to the macro narrative and one of the most important reasons for Lithuania's intervention is geopolitical means and its security and sovereignty. This thesis does not find differences between the governmental and non-governmental sectors. In short, the statement of defense is not correct. Overall, it could be said that this case study corresponds to the findings of its forerunners, but it also adds a mezzo level explanation to the discussion. |
