Estonia and Portugal in Europe: escaping peripherality, capitalizing on marginality

ABSTRACT

Estonia and Portugal are small states located at opposite geographical fringes of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This article analyses how their NATO and EU memberships matter in escaping the anathema of periphery. We argue that the two countries can be comparable with each other because they share an experience of post-authoritarian democratization, a liminal geographic location with the ensuing geopolitical and security challenges. Our analysis is premised upon two correlative concepts of small states and marginality, whose meanings vary from geopolitical reasoning to constructivist accounts that put the emphasis on the relative notion of size as a product of self-perception. However, both approaches share at least one common point: ‘by joining international organizations, small states increase their capacity to be influential’, which is a central point in Noel Parker’s conceptualization of the phenomenon of marginality. Arguably, small states can positively use their non-central location by aspiring to belong to political and security core(s) through policies of institutional inclusion, and by influencing and reshaping the core(s). Building on these arguments, we look at peripheral positions as negative and marginality as positive for dynamics/strategies of belonging.

KEYWORDS:

• Estonia
• Portugal
• marginality
• Europe

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This view is articulated by the Portuguese diplomats, namely the Portuguese ambassador to NATO, Luís de Almeida Sampaio, interviewed in Brussels, in November 2017.

2. Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste.

3. Interview conducted in NATO Headquarters, Brussels, in November 2017.

4. Interview with the Portuguese ambassador in the Political and Security Committee, in Brussels, November 2017.

5. Interview with the Portuguese Ambassador to NATO, Luís de Almeida Sampaio, Brussels, November 2017.

6. Interview with a Portuguese diplomat in Moscow, in May 2018.

7. E-Residency is managed athttps://e-estonia.com.

8. Interviews with Portuguese officials and an Estonian official conducted in Brussels, in November 2017.

9. Interview conducted with the Portuguese ambassador in the Political and Security Committee, in Brussels, in November 2017.

10. Retrieved from the allocution of a Portuguese diplomat in Braga, May 2018.