In the present debate over the future of NATO’s nuclear policy, and especially the stationing of the U.S. sub-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe, the countries of Central Europe (understood here as the Baltic Three – Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia – plus Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) are usually presented as the staunch supporters of the nuclear status quo, in favour of the permanent deployment of the U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe out of the fear of Russia. In fact, their attitude towards the role of nuclear weapons and wider issue of the deterrence policy of the North Atlantic Alliance is much more varied and nuanced, and reducing them to a “no changes” camp can result in the oversimplification of the picture and hampers the understanding of the motives of their choices in foreign and security policy.
