National Power. Options for The Republic of Estonia in Case of a Pandemic

• Authors: Helen Sääsk
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

PL

The present paper looks at a purely hypothetical situation where the government of the Republic of Estonia has received information that the World Health Organization has declared the start of an influenza pandemic. The government starts looking for ways to use all means of power it has to protect the population. The foreign policy goals in this situation can be summarized as supporting neighboring countries through sharing expertise when possible, monitoring the actions of Russia which there is general distrust towards, being an equal partner of shared values to the Nordic countries, and negotiating with vaccine producers while looking for any solutions that might make vaccines attainable for more countries. The strength of Estonia lies in using soft power instruments. The country can use its image as a link between Scandinavia and Eastern Europe to act as a bridge to the ideas and values of health protection. Estonia can also share expertise in fields like ICT. Complicated relations with Russia are not easy to overcome even for humanitarian causes which suggests the necessity of active involvement in international initiatives. To enlarge the vaccine supply, Estonia is again likely to benefit from international cooperation. Richer states and international organizations can perceive Estonia as wishing to subdue to their own soft power by following their example of inoculating the populace.Full text: http://bazhum.muzhp.pl/czasopismo/589/?idno=14761

Keywords

PL

government; WHO; hypothetical situation; soft power; strategic simulation; pandemic; crisis

• Publisher: Fundacja Copernicus na rzecz Rozwoju Badań Naukowych
• Journal: The Copernicus Journal of Political Studies
• Year: 2012
• Issue: 1 (1)

Dates

published

2012

online

2018-10-21

Contributors

author

Helen Sääsk

editor

Grzegorz Kopcewicz

editor

Natalia Olszanecka

editor

Daniel Urbański

editor

Joanna Piechowiak-Lamparska

editor

Agnieszka Bryc

editor

Bartosz Bojarczyk

editor

Feride Asli Ergul Jorgensen

editor

Dorota Niedziołka

editor

Anna Pacześniak

editor

Radosław Potorski

editor

Maria Wincławska

editor

Agata Włodkowska-Bagan

editor

Agnieszka Jeran

editor

Anna Mol

editor

Alex Solsbery

editor

Izabela Dąbrowska

editor

Mirosław Głodkowski

other

Grzegorz Kopcewicz

other

Natalia Olszanecka

other

Joanna Piechowiak-Lamparska

Identifiers

DOI

10.12775/18385