In 2008, as part of a “nation branding” exercise – an attempt to give a country an easily recognisable identity – the Lithuanian communication specialists came up with the slogan “Lithuania – a brave country”. At the time, the country’s political elite were sceptical, but today, they identify with the label almost instinctively. Indeed, the small Baltic country has a population of less than 3 million and is in the borderlands of the EU, yet since 2020, it has stood up to three autocratic regimes: Belarus, China, and especially Russia.
