National Military Diplomacy and its Prospects

Abstract This article presents the development of modern Lithuanian military diplomacy, the future priority trends, and examines the features of service organizations. It is demonstrated that organizing military diplomacy is a totality of political provisions, encompassing the preparedness of the Lithuanian officer corps, activity support and supply chain, and the position of a military diplomacy organization in a system of national diplomacy. According to the author, the scope of military diplomacy is determined by the provisions of political leadership of the national defence system on the implementation of Lithuania’s foreign policy in the defence sphere, as well as by the extent of representing departmental interests in similar systems in foreign countries. The article presents the specifics of military diplomacy and that of officers’ service within allied (NATO) or EU countries and the peculiarities of service in other states often displaying pugnacious interests to Lithuania. The author sets forth arguments concerning the priorities of military diplomatic representation in the mid-term, and concludes that the significance of military diplomacy, in light of recently developing trends of an international framework, will further expand whereas fully-fledged diplomacy will be incapacitated to function without qualified military advice.