The Baltic Defence College hosted the 2017 Annual Baltic Military History Conference on 24th March. This year’s conference coincided with the centenary of the Russian Revolution, and the theme was ‘From Narva to NATO: 100 Years of Russia versus the West, 1917-2017’. The presentations covered a broad chronological and geographic timeframe, including the Baltic independence wars, the Eastern Front of the Second World War, various theatres of the Cold War, and the more recent events related to Russia’s revisionist policies.

A total of 19 guest speakers, representing 13 nations, including the three Baltic states, Finland, Poland, Ukraine, Denmark, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States participated in the event. In addition, over 30 participants, including students from the Joint Command and General Staff Course of the Baltic Defence College, students from Tartu University, and military professionals and civil servants from Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States European Command contributed to the discussions.

The Baltic Defence College would like to extend its most sincere gratitude and appreciation to all participants in the 2017 Annual Conference on Baltic Military History.

The main purpose of the Annual Baltic Military History Conference is to explore how lessons from the past can offer a guideline to develop a viable defence policy for the wider Baltic region. The exchange of ideas is meant to improve our perception of military history in a broader framework, and provide an opportunity to discuss this during the follow-on panel sessions.

The next Annual Conference on Baltic Military History is scheduled to take place in 2018. In commemoration of the centenary of the Baltic States’ achieving their independence, the theme of the conference will be ‘Independence Wars from an International Perspective’.