Baltic: The Future of Europe

THE MUST-READ BOOK ON THE WORLD'S BIGGEST FLASHPOINT 'Magnificent ... As exciting to read as it is important' Peter Frankopan 'Fascinating ... essential reading' Helen Thompson 'Alarming and uplifting' John Kampfner The Baltic will decide the course of the West in the coming years. These nine borderlands are not only the historical battleground of Russian aggression; they are also a factory of ideas for how to revive Europe. Shaped by the past one hundred years, each Baltic country offers lessons in adaptability, hope and prosperity in an era of instability. Innovation in Estonia, patience in Finland, resilience in Poland, even poetry in Latvia: with their tumultuous pasts and exposed geography, these poorly understood frontline states are reconfiguring the balance of power around the heart of Eurasia. From pioneering environmental initiatives and world-leading innovations in technology to ever-growing economies, from tackling disinformation to tempering the populist right, the Baltic states are now key to understanding how political events might unfold in the coming years. Blending history, politics and reportage, this is the first book to explain why these are some of our most imaginative allies, yet most of us know so little about them. Interviewing prime ministers, presidents, generals, intelligence officers, business leaders and ordinary people, Oliver Moody traces the extraordinary emergence of a new fulcrum of great-power rivalry. But the real reason we need to understand them is that their fate is ours.

About the Author :
Oliver Moody has been the Berlin bureau chief for The Times since 2018, covering Germany and northern and central Europe. The same year, he was named science and data commentator and young commentator of the year at the UK Comment Awards. He was journalist in residence at the WZB Berlin social science centre in 2024. He lives in Berlin with his wife and their two young children.

Review :
Moody has extensively travelled around the Baltic Sea and written a fascinating book on its changing politics in the shadow of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Baltic is essential reading for beginning to understand the present tumult in Europe as part of long European history There are countries that take on Russia, and countries that don't. In this masterful account of political and societal resistance, Moody travels across Poland, the Baltics and the Nordics describing how this part of Europe understood Putin long before the rest. Mixing deep research with vivid reportage and a clear-sighted argument, this essential book is in turns alarming and uplifting This is a brilliantly written book on an area about which many in Britain know little but they will now no longer have any excuse for remaining ignorant. Moody takes us through the entire Baltic sea littoral to show us how it is the frontline in the confrontation with Vladimir Putin and how it has much to teach us An absolute must-read This is a fascinating and original book examining the nine Baltic sea countries, looking at their troubled history and their current resurgence within Europe. Elegantly written and fizzing with fresh insights, this is an important and definitive study Oliver Moody's lucid and accessible book sheds light on one of the most crucial yet least understood places in Europe. Baltic is a tour de force, somehow packing the mind-boggling complexity of the region into a captivating page-turner Magnificent. An outstanding book that underlines the critical importance of the Baltic that is as exciting to read as it is important The Baltic emerges in Moody's well-researched book as an East-West borderland shadowed by Slav-Teuton antagonisms . . . urgent Brilliantly written, convincingly argued and compelling... Moody's truly impressive achievement in this book is to provide a detailed explanation of the background to the Baltic conflict This timely and insightful book charts the self-confident rise and importance of the countries of the Baltic sea region and the need to listen to them as the focus of geopolitics shifts steadily eastwards. It analyses thoroughly the context of Russia's war upon the Ukraine, explains the central and increasing significance of hybrid "grey zone" forms of conflict and examines Russia's complex and dangerous motivations. Oliver Moody argues that the Baltic needs to be understood coherently in its own terms and not just as the eastern end of western Europe, and so shows the ways in which the "West" can win this decisive conflict An insightful and thought-provoking book about a fascinating region of the world In these geopolitically volatile times, much international attention is paid to the Taiwan Straits and the battlefields of Ukraine, but too little to the Baltic Sea. Oliver Moody explains its strategic relevance, and offers important insight into why the nine countries bordering the Baltic face very similar problems, but often look at them in entirely different ways Timely and insightful A timely analysis . . . well-researched A rigorous study . . . the region is one of the least understood places and the author explains both its historical trajectory and strategic relevance Grim, prophetic and as gripping as any fictional thriller . . . Hard to put down