Description
After World War II, NATO was established to safeguard its members’ freedom and peace in the context of the threat posed by the USSR. As a result, member states were able to further develop their democratic institutions and were given the opportunity to consolidate democracy within NATO. On the other hand, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine and Georgia, which experienced 70 years of Soviet occupation and terror, were asked to develop democratically before being considered for NATO membership. This study focuses on the effects of security cooperation on democratisation, particularly the presence or absence of security alliances with democratic states, as a factor shaping democratisation under conditions of the threat posed by the former imperial centre and an authoritarian regional hegemon, investigating both inter-state and intra-state politics in Ukraine, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
Contemporary democratic theories cannot explain how a state can achieve consolidated democracy when they face external threats and interference from non-democratic states while not having national security guarantees (from democratic alliances). Traditional analysis of democratisation (specifically in an era when not only physical occupation but also cyber mechanisms are used) without understanding of the interrelationship between state security issues and democratic development fails to give a full picture of democratisation. This study argues that small states aiming to develop democratically and achieve consolidated democracy, but facing external threats and interference from undemocratic, authoritarian, or totalitarian regimes, can only consolidate democracy if they have national security guarantees from an alliance of other democratic states.
