Lecture: Estonia’s Security Predicament: Internal Inequality, External Threat

This lecture is part of the Economic Insecurity: Causes, Consequences and Actions (EICCA) research project.

The lecture will take place with a networking reception. Registration is mandatory and open until 22 April 2026. To register, please contact karan.singhal@uni.lu

This is the second of two lectures. The first lecture will take place on 23 April 2026, from 16:00 to 20:00

About the lecture:

Estonia is the member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization perhaps at greatest risk of aggression from Russia, whose fortress town of Ivangorod lies opposite the former twin city of Narva, separated only by the Narva River.  This external threat is not Estonia’s only source of insecurity. Its population is a quarter Russian, and Narva itself is 95 percent Russian. Economic, social, and political inequality that favors ethnic Estonians over Estonia’s Russians (many of them noncitizens) constitutes an additional source of insecurity. This presentation describes the case for understanding Estonia’s inequality as a threat to national security and suggests ways to remedy it.

About the speaker:

Matthew Evangelista is President White Professor of History and Political Science Emeritus in the Department of Government at Cornell Univerity, USA.