Where will the AABS Australasian Chapter conference be held?

The conference will take place in Sydney, AUS, providing an international setting for discussions on the Baltic States.

What is the primary focus of this conference?

The conference will focus on "The Baltic States and the New World Order," exploring the geopolitical challenges and opportunities facing Estonia (EST), Latvia (LVA), and Lithuania (LTU) in the current global climate.

What is the format of the conference?

The conference is scheduled as an in-person event, facilitating direct engagement and discussion among participants in Sydney, AUS.

AABS Australasian Chapter 22nd Conference: The Baltic States and the New World Order

Name: AABS Australasian Chapter 22nd Conference: The Baltic States and the New World Order
Start: 2026-10-10T00:00:00Z
End: 2026-10-11T00:00:00Z
Location: Sydney

Oct 10–11, 2026Sydney, AustraliaIn-person

Registration open

The AABS Australasian Chapter's conference, themed "The Baltic States and the New World Order," will convene in Sydney, Australia. This gathering offers a critical platform for scholars and practitioners to analyze the evolving geopolitical landscape and its specific impact on Estonia (Estonia), Latvia, and Lithuania (Lithuania). The discussions will delve into how these nations navigate complex international relations amidst shifting global power dynamics. The conference aims to foster a deeper understanding of the Baltic region's strategic importance and its role in shaping broader international discourse. Participants will explore various facets of the "New World Order" as it pertains to the Baltic States, including security challenges, economic adaptations, and cultural preservation in a rapidly changing global environment.

Committees & topics

Topics
Baltic Studies: The Field and Its Evolving Agenda · Global Security in a Contested World Order · Russia's War on Ukraine · Anthropology of the Baltic Region · Architecture and the Built Environment of the Baltic States · Business and Economic Transformation in the Baltic States · Communication and Media in the Baltic Information Space · Cultural Studies and the Politics of Memory in the Baltic States

Why it matters

The Baltic States, comprising Estonia (EST), Latvia (LVA), and Lithuania (LTU), hold a unique and often precarious position in the global geopolitical structure. Situated at a critical juncture between Eastern and Western spheres of influence, their experiences offer invaluable insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by a "New World Order." This conference is significant because it brings together diverse perspectives to examine how these nations are responding to and shaping global shifts, moving beyond a purely regional focus.

Understanding the Baltic perspective is crucial for comprehending broader international trends, particularly concerning security, sovereignty, and the resilience of democratic institutions in the face of external pressures. The discussions will likely touch upon their relationships with major powers like Russia (RUS), Germany (DEU), and the United States (USA), as well as their integration into European and transatlantic structures. By focusing on this region, the conference provides a microcosm for analyzing larger global transformations and the strategies smaller states employ to maintain their autonomy and influence.

Furthermore, the conference's location in Sydney, AUS, highlights the expanding global interest in the Baltic region and the interconnectedness of international affairs. It underscores that the implications of a "New World Order" are felt far beyond immediate geographical proximity, necessitating a global dialogue on these issues. The insights generated here can inform policy-making and academic understanding across continents.

How to prepare

To effectively engage with the themes of "The Baltic States and the New World Order," participants should undertake a comprehensive preparatory approach. Begin by familiarizing yourself with the historical context of Estonia (EST), Latvia (LVA), and Lithuania (LTU), particularly their periods of independence, occupation, and re-establishment of sovereignty. This historical grounding is essential for understanding their current geopolitical anxieties and strategic priorities.

Next, delve into contemporary geopolitical theories concerning the "New World Order." Consider different interpretations of what this term entails and how it manifests in various regions. This includes examining the rise of multipolarity, the challenges to established international norms, and the increasing influence of non-state actors. A strong grasp of these theoretical frameworks will enable a more nuanced analysis of the Baltic States' position within this evolving global structure.

Furthermore, research the current security, economic, and political challenges faced by the Baltic States. This involves understanding their relationships with neighboring countries, their roles within international organizations such as NATO and the European Union, and their responses to issues like cybersecurity threats, energy security, and regional conflicts. Consider applying lessons from topics such as "Dynamic Analysis" to understand the fluidity of these challenges and "Engagement Strategies" to assess how these nations interact with international partners. Understanding these specific dynamics will allow for more informed contributions to the conference discussions.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Estonia

A leading voice in digital governance and cybersecurity, Estonia actively advocates for collective security and democratic values.

Role in topic

Estonia's experience as a digital society and its robust defense posture against cyber threats position it as a key case study in navigating the challenges of the New World Order. Its strong ties with Western allies and its vocal stance on international law are central to discussions on sovereignty and security.

Latvia

Latvia emphasizes economic resilience and strategic partnerships to counter regional pressures and promote stability.

Role in topic

Latvia's geographical location and historical experiences make it particularly sensitive to geopolitical shifts. Its efforts to diversify its economy, strengthen its defense capabilities, and foster strong alliances are critical for understanding how smaller states adapt to a changing global landscape.

Lithuania

Lithuania is a firm proponent of democratic values and human rights, often taking a principled stand on international issues.

Role in topic

Lithuania's assertive foreign policy, particularly concerning democratic movements and human rights, offers a perspective on how values-driven diplomacy can operate within a complex international system. Its commitment to regional security and its active role in international forums will be a significant point of discussion.

Australia

As the host nation, Australia provides a platform for global dialogue on international security and regional dynamics.

Role in topic

Australia's role as the conference host in Sydney signifies the global reach of discussions concerning the Baltic States and the New World Order. It reflects a growing recognition of the interconnectedness of international security and the importance of diverse perspectives in addressing global challenges.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Baltic Studies: The Field and Its Evolving Agenda

Baltic Studies emerged as a distinct interdisciplinary field during the Cold War, sustained largely by diaspora scholars in North America, Australia, and Western Europe who preserved the languages, histories, and cultures of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania while the three states were occupied by the Soviet Union following the 1940 annexations. The Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS), founded in 1968, became a central institutional home for this work, complementing parallel networks in Europe. With the restoration of Baltic independence in 1991, the field expanded inside the region itself, with revitalized universities, archives, and research institutes engaging questions of transition, memory, and Europeanization. Since the Baltic states' accession to the EU and NATO in 2004, scholarship has increasingly addressed integration, minority and citizenship policy, energy and digital transformation, and the politics of memory around Soviet and Nazi occupations. Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have sharpened a securitization turn within Baltic Studies, drawing in scholars of defense, hybrid threats, and migration. The contemporary agenda blends classical philological and historical inquiry with policy-relevant work on resilience, disinformation, and the Baltic states' role as frontline democracies in a contested European order.

Key players

Global Security in a Contested World Order

The post-Cold War security order, built around U.S. primacy, NATO enlargement, and a broadly liberal economic system, has come under sustained strain since the mid-2010s. Russia's 2014 seizure of Crimea, the deepening U.S.–China strategic rivalry, the erosion of arms control agreements such as the INF Treaty and Open Skies, and the return of large-scale interstate war in Europe in 2022 have together signaled a shift toward a more multipolar and contested system. Simultaneously, the diffusion of disruptive technologies — cyber, AI-enabled weapons, drones, and dual-use space assets — has blurred the line between peacetime and wartime competition. For the Baltic region, these shifts are immediate rather than abstract. NATO has reinforced its eastern flank through enhanced Forward Presence battlegroups, expanded air policing, and after 2022 a move toward brigade-level deployments and regional defense plans. Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO has transformed the Baltic Sea into what officials now openly describe as a "NATO lake," while hybrid pressure — sabotage of undersea cables, GPS jamming, instrumentalized migration on the Belarusian border — continues. Global security debates today therefore center on how to deter revisionist powers, manage nuclear risk, govern emerging technologies, and sustain alliance cohesion amid domestic political volatility in key democracies.

Key players

Russia's War on Ukraine

Russia's war on Ukraine began in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea and the covert intervention in the Donbas, following Ukraine's Euromaidan revolution and pivot toward EU association. The Minsk agreements froze but did not resolve the conflict. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion aimed at toppling the government in Kyiv; the initial assault failed, and the war evolved into a grinding attritional conflict along a long front line in eastern and southern Ukraine, accompanied by missile and drone campaigns against Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure. The international response has been historically broad but uneven. The EU, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Australia, and others have imposed successive sanctions packages, frozen Russian central bank assets, and provided large-scale military, financial, and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The UN General Assembly has repeatedly condemned the invasion and the purported annexations of Ukrainian territory, while the UNSC has been paralyzed by Russia's veto. The ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Putin in March 2023 over the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. For the Baltic states, the war is existential: they are among the largest donors to Ukraine relative to GDP and the loudest advocates for sustained Western support, recognizing the precedent any negotiated outcome would set for European security.

Key players

Anthropology of the Baltic Region

Anthropological work on the Baltic region has long grappled with the layered legacies of empire, occupation, and rapid post-Soviet transformation. Soviet-era ethnography emphasized folkloric "national cultures" within an overarching socialist framework, while diaspora and Western scholars documented practices erased or constrained at home. After 1991, ethnographic research expanded into political anthropology, kinship, religion, rural depopulation, and the experiences of Russian-speaking minorities, particularly in Estonia and Latvia where citizenship and language policies generated contested boundaries of belonging. More recent anthropological inquiry has turned to migration (both outward labor migration within the EU and inward flows from Ukraine and elsewhere), digital life in highly connected Baltic societies, environmental change in the Baltic Sea and forests, and the lived experience of insecurity along borders with Russia and Belarus. War-displaced Ukrainians, instrumentalized migration on the Belarus–Poland–Lithuania border, and the revival of civil-defense practices have all become field sites. The discipline today situates the Baltic as a productive laboratory for studying how small societies negotiate sovereignty, memory, and globalization under conditions of acute geopolitical pressure.

Key players

Architecture and the Built Environment of the Baltic States

Baltic architecture reflects centuries of overlapping influences: Hanseatic merchant urbanism in Tallinn and Riga, Polish-Lithuanian Baroque in Vilnius, German Baltic manor estates, late-19th-century Jugendstil — most famously in Riga — and ambitious interwar modernism produced during the first period of independence. Soviet annexation imposed standardized mass housing (mikrorayons), monumental civic projects, and industrial-scale planning, much of which still defines the urban fabric. UNESCO has recognized the historic centers of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, and the Curonian Spit, underscoring the heritage stakes of contemporary development. Since 1991, architects have negotiated restitution, heritage conservation, EU-funded regeneration, and a search for distinctive national contemporary languages. Debates now center on the future of Soviet-era housing stock, energy retrofitting in line with EU climate targets, the redevelopment of port and industrial sites, and how to memorialize — or remove — Soviet-era monuments, an issue sharpened after 2022. Wartime considerations have also reintroduced civil-defense requirements, shelters, and infrastructure resilience into mainstream architectural and planning practice.

Key players

Business and Economic Transformation in the Baltic States

The Baltic states underwent some of the most radical economic transitions in post-communist Europe, moving from centrally planned Soviet economies to open, small, trade-dependent market economies. Estonia's flat tax and early digitization, Latvia's banking and logistics sectors, and Lithuania's manufacturing and fintech base each developed distinctive profiles. EU and eurozone accession (Estonia 2011, Latvia 2014, Lithuania 2015) anchored macroeconomic discipline, while the 2008–2010 crisis tested — and ultimately validated — internal-devaluation strategies at high social cost. The post-2022 environment has reshaped Baltic business. Decoupling from Russian and Belarusian energy and trade, including exit from the BRELL electricity ring planned for completion in 2025, has driven rapid investment in LNG, renewables, and grid integration with continental Europe. Defense spending has risen sharply, supporting a nascent regional defense-industrial base. Fintech, cybersecurity, and ICT remain strengths, while exposure to global supply-chain shocks, demographic decline, and energy prices remain core vulnerabilities. Baltic firms increasingly orient westward and northward, deepening Nordic-Baltic economic integration.

Key players

Communication and Media in the Baltic Information Space

Baltic media systems were rebuilt in the 1990s on liberal-democratic foundations, but their information spaces have remained unusually exposed to external influence due to large Russian-speaking audiences, geographic proximity to Russia, and deep penetration of Russian-origin broadcast and online content. Public broadcasters (ERR, LTV/LR, LRT) coexist with concentrated private markets and a vibrant digital sector; Estonia and Lithuania consistently rank among the freer media environments globally, while all three states have invested in Russian-language public-service offerings to counter Kremlin narratives. Since 2014, and especially after 2022, Baltic regulators have suspended or banned numerous Russian and Belarusian state-linked channels, prosecuted disinformation actors, and expanded media-literacy programs in schools. The region has become a laboratory for counter-disinformation policy, hosting NATO's Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga and contributing extensively to EU efforts such as EUvsDisinfo. Ongoing debates concern the balance between free expression and security restrictions, platform accountability, the sustainability of small-language media markets, and the role of AI-generated content in future influence operations.

Key players

Cultural Studies and the Politics of Memory in the Baltic States

Cultural studies in the Baltic context has been shaped by the task of reconstructing national cultural narratives after fifty years of Soviet occupation, while engaging critically with the multi-ethnic, multilingual, and multi-religious histories of the region. Song festivals, literary canons, and folk revival movements played central roles in the late-1980s "Singing Revolution" and continue to anchor cultural identity. At the same time, scholars have foregrounded Jewish, Baltic German, Polish, Russian, Roma, and Old Believer histories that complicate any single national frame, and confronted the legacies of the Holocaust and Soviet repression. Contemporary cultural debates revolve around memory politics — including the removal of Soviet monuments after 2022, commemoration of deportations and resistance, and contested anniversaries — alongside questions of language policy, decolonial readings of Russian cultural dominance, and the place of Baltic literature, film, and music in global markets. Cultural policy is increasingly framed not only as heritage preservation but as a dimension of societal resilience, identity, and soft power in a contested regional order.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AABS Australasian Chapter 22nd Conference: The Baltic States and the New World Order.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Engagement Strategies

Gender Dynamics Across Cultures

Hidden Stakeholders

Dynamic Analysis

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Cross-Cultural Communication

Persuasion & Influence

Advanced Negotiation

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Australia October 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

AABS Australasian Chapter 22nd Conference: The Baltic States and the New World Order

Oct 10–11, 2026Sydney, AustraliaIn-person

Registration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Baltic Studies: The Field and Its Evolving Agenda · Global Security in a Contested World Order · Russia's War on Ukraine · Anthropology of the Baltic Region · Architecture and the Built Environment of the Baltic States · Business and Economic Transformation in the Baltic States · Communication and Media in the Baltic Information Space · Cultural Studies and the Politics of Memory in the Baltic States

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Estonia

A leading voice in digital governance and cybersecurity, Estonia actively advocates for collective security and democratic values.

Role in topic

Latvia

Latvia emphasizes economic resilience and strategic partnerships to counter regional pressures and promote stability.

Role in topic

Lithuania

Lithuania is a firm proponent of democratic values and human rights, often taking a principled stand on international issues.

Role in topic

Australia

As the host nation, Australia provides a platform for global dialogue on international security and regional dynamics.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Baltic Studies: The Field and Its Evolving Agenda

Key players

Global Security in a Contested World Order

Key players

Russia's War on Ukraine

Key players

Anthropology of the Baltic Region

Key players

Architecture and the Built Environment of the Baltic States

Key players

Business and Economic Transformation in the Baltic States

Key players

Communication and Media in the Baltic Information Space

Key players

Cultural Studies and the Politics of Memory in the Baltic States

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AABS Australasian Chapter 22nd Conference: The Baltic States and the New World Order.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Comprehensive approach to security: Federal Council launches consultation on Switzerland's security policy strategy

Ukraine Drone Strikes Crimea Power Grid

Georgia Considers Position in New South Caucasus Transit Era - Jamestown

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Engagement Strategies

Gender Dynamics Across Cultures

Hidden Stakeholders

Dynamic Analysis

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Media & Press Relations

Cross-Cultural Communication

Persuasion & Influence

Advanced Negotiation

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Australia October 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues (ICLSPI)

ASPI Defence Conference 2026

Australia-Japan Resilience and Security Forum

35th Annual AIPIO Intelligence Conference 2026

International Conference on International Relations and Affairs (ICIRA)

International Conference on War, Conflict, and Peacebuilding in Oceania (ICWCPO - 26)

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

International Conference on Legal, Security and Privacy Issues (ICLSPI)

ASPI Defence Conference 2026

Australia-Japan Resilience and Security Forum

35th Annual AIPIO Intelligence Conference 2026

International Conference on International Relations and Affairs (ICIRA)

International Conference on War, Conflict, and Peacebuilding in Oceania (ICWCPO - 26)

Frequently asked questions