ABSTRACT
The chapter presents the role of demography in theories of geopolitics and international relations. It highlights the changing demographic challenges in recent years in the Baltic states. The militarisation of migration is identified as a new geopolitical challenge in the shatter belt region. The attributes of a sovereign state – population, territory and power – provide a starting point for analysing the strategic challenges facing the small Baltic states. The subject of this chapter’s analysis is one of these attributes of sovereignty: population. The Baltic states stand out from other small European states because of their very small and declining population. The chapter analyses the exploitation of depopulation processes in the Baltic states by their aggressive neighbour, Russia. The policy of weaponising migrants from the Middle East is taking place via the territory of Belarus, a Russian ally. It reveals the ineffectiveness of the Baltic states’ border protection (especially Lithuania and Latvia). This, in turn, deepens the phenomenon of hyper-securitisation, that is the obsessive fear of Russian aggression in all the Baltic states discussed.
