Ausra Park, Ph.D.
apark@siena.edu
Siena College
City: Loudonville, New York - 12211
Country: United States
Research Interests
Post-Communist Politics
Foreign Policy
Political Psychology
Comparative Political Institutions
European Politics
Gender and Politics
Political Leadership
Post-Soviet Countries
Small States
Comparative Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy Analysis
Human Trafficking
Gender And Personality
International Relations
Countries of Interest
Estonia
Lithuania
Latvia
Former Soviet Union
Georgia
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
My Research:
My research is focused on top political leadership (presidents, prime ministers, parliament chairs, and ministers of foreign affairs), small states' foreign policies, role and impact of foreign policymaking institutions, nation-branding, migration, and human trafficking. My current research focuses on two manuscript projects: 1) the first generation of political leaders from the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and how leaders’ personalities affected countries’ policymaking and foreign policy choices, and 2) the first female East European Presidents that recently came to power (Latvia, Lithuania, Kosovo, Croatia, and Estonia) and the impact (as well as legacies) they had. My broader thematic and geographic area research interests include Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania); Post-Soviet States (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan; Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan); the EU; Eastern European Post-Communist Countries; Political Leadership; Crisis Leadership; Foreign Policy Analysis; Migration/Emigration; Human Trafficking (from/to post-Soviet region); Comparative Foreign Policy; Corruption; Democratization and Back Sliding; and Global Justice.
Publications:
Journal Articles:
Research on status-seeking in international politics offers valuable insights why countries of various sizes may and sometimes do act in unexpected and ‘irrational’ ways. This article applies status-seeking theoretical framework, specifically Social Identity Theory, to explain small, materially weak state’s unconventional foreign policy choices. Specifically, our case study focuses on Lithuania and Vilnius’s ambitious engagement in EU’s Eastern Partnership Program, targeting Ukraine and Georgia. We find that status-focused analysis helps to better comprehend several ‘unusual’ foreign policy initiatives launched by Lithuanian policymakers since the 2000s, the ultimate purpose of which, we argue, was the pursuit of a higher status.
In 2009, Lithuania’s incoming president was signaling that the country’s foreign policy priorities were about to change. Under what circumstances and to what extent can a high-ranking political leader change a state’s foreign policy singlehandedly? This study, drawing on insights from foreign policy analysis literature, integrates individual decision-makers profiling to offer explanations of initiated changes in Lithuania’s foreign policy. We argue that personal preferences, worldviews, and leadership style allowed Grybauskaite to become the main initiator of foreign policy changes, but that personality-driven foreign policy changes were temporary and were eventually subdued by domestic and international structural factors.
Migration occurs among all states, even under “normal” political conditions. When traumatic changes unfold, migration usually increases dramatically. Although all post-communist states experienced significant migration outflows since the 1990s, Lithuania stands as an anomaly among EU member states, exhibiting the net outmigration rates of –25.2% in 2010 and – 12.6% in 2011, which is significantly higher than other post-communist emigrant-states. Situating this article within migration literature debates, and by testing the explanatory powers of migration theories on the selected case, understudied political and social causes that also impact Lithuania’s abnormally high emigration rates are closely examined.
This article uses insights from leadership studies to assess how individual leaders have influenced Lithuania’s presidential office and the country’s foreign policy. The case study examines the historical context under which this formal institution was created and evaluates the four presidents in terms of their effectiveness and the impact they had. The article concludes by identifying two Lithuanian leaders as being effective and influential during their presidency, albeit having different impacts on the foreign policy of the country due to their personality traits and domestic as well as foreign contextual factors.
Book Chapters:
Edited volume tentatively titled "Small States and Security in Europe: Between National and International Policy-Making." Forthcoming in 2021
Book Reviews:
Graney admirably and single-handedly undertakes a very ambitious project on a truly big topic. Her manuscript will be gladly received by many scholars in the post-Soviet studies field as we finally have a single book that covers all countries of the former Soviet Union, that presents updated political, economic, and cultural developments in the post- Soviet space, and that engagingly “rediscovers” this somewhat forgotten part of the world.
Other:
The first year of Nausėda’s presidency had its share of ups and downs. Despite being a political outsider, with no previous experience in politics and policy-making arenas, Nausėda at the start of his presidency had enjoyed very high public approval ratings with 80% of the public holding favorable opinion of the president (ELTA poll conducted in Dec. 2019). Even half a year later, the new president still found himself at the top, ranking as the second most popular politician with an even higher 83% approval rating (ELTA public opinion poll in Feb. 2020).
Case study of Lithuanian Human anti-trafficking NGOs (fieldwork conducted in summer 2014 funded by IREX grant/US Dept of State)
Analysis of policies by Lithuanian President Grybauskaite
Analysis of policies by Lithuanian President Grybauskaite
Analysis of policies by Lithuanian President Grybauskaite
Analysis of Lithuanian President Grybauskaite's foreign policy initiatives
Analysis of Lithuanian President Grybauskaite's foreign policy initiatives
Analysis of Lithuanian President Grybauskaite's foreign policy initiatives
Human trafficking and anti-trafficking NGOs in Lithuania (field research)
Media Appearances:
TV Appearances:
Interviewed (in Lithuanian)
Interviewed (in Lithuanian)
Comment at the XVI World Lithuanian Symposium
Newspaper Quotes:
Commentary on Lithuanian universities
Commentary on Lithuanian university system
Comment on the first Lithuanian women president's foreign policy achievements
Other:
Full recording of presentation at the XVI World Lithuanian Symposium; in Lithuanian