Émigrés, dissidents and international organisations
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Emigrantai (Diaspora); Disidentai; Tarptautinės organizacijos; Baltijos valstybės; Emigrants; Dissidents; International organizations; Baltic States.
ENThroughout the years of the Cold War, Baltic diplomats and émigré organisations in the West lobbied tirelessly to keep the Baltic question on the international agenda, as did dissident groups in the Baltic states themselves. As well as approaching individual state governments, these advocates of Baltic independence also courted supranational organisations such as the United Nations, the Conference Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) and the European Union. According to Ojars Eriks Kalninš, who was chief lobbyist for the American Latvian Association (ALA) in Washington, DC, from 1985 until 1991, targeting such organisations was an important complement to work with individual governments, not least because on occasion the only way to reach a regime was through international organisations such as the CSCE/OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe). In Kalnins’ view, lobbying the US government, and Congress in particular, was relatively straightforward. By contrast, European countries tended to be less willing to confront the Soviet Union over an issue such as the Baltic states. Whereas direct communication with senior figures in, for example, the French, German or Dutch foreign ministries may have been challenging, if dissidents could get their message onto the CSCE agenda then foreign ministers were at least forced to acknowledge the issue. This point highlights how the goals of organisations such as the CSCE differed from the national interests of individual states. [Extract, p. 144]
