On 19 September 2023, the Lithuanian Ambassadors’ Club (LAC) awarded the LAC prize for the Best Master’s Thesis. This year, five theses were submitted for the LAC competition.
After extensive discussions, it was decided to award the € 700 Prize to Mr. Pijus Domantas Petrošius, a Master’s student at the Institute of International Relations and Political Science at Vilnius University. The topic of his master’s thesis was “US attention as an ontological source of security. An Analysis of Lithuania’s Value-Based Foreign Policy Towards China” (thesis supervisor prof. Dovilė Jakniūnaitė).
Mr P. Petrošius analyses the reasons for the value-based foreign policy pursued by the current Lithuanian Government. Why do Lithuanian decision-makers seek a value-based foreign policy mainly directed against China? He concludes that Lithuanian decision-makers are pursuing a value-based foreign policy to attract the attention of the US in the pursuit of ontological security.
LAC President Ambassador Algimantas Rimkūnas also expressed his gratitude to Ms. Aistė Leleikaitė for her thesis: “Factors of Compliance with Armistice Agreements: a Case Study of Darfur and the Second Sudanese Civil War“, General Jonas Žemaitis Lithuanian Military Academy; to Ms. Sima Pranaitienė for her thesis: “The Relationship between the Welfare State and Social Security“, Klaipėda University; to Ms. Rugila Špakauskaitė for her thesis: “French Cultural Diplomacy Directions and Strategies in Lithuania and Poland 2017-2022“, Vytautas Magnus University; and to Ms. Liveta Repšienė for her thesis: “Controversial Episodes of Lithuanian-Polish Relations in the Polish History Textbooks of the Period from 1989 to 2022“, the History Faculty of Vilnius University.
All participants were presented with letters of appreciation and a book published by the Lithuanian Institute of History – “The Constitution of 3 May 1791. Testament of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth”.
The event, which has become a tradition, once again has demonstrated a high level of training of international relations analysts in Lithuanian universities, which could enrich the ranks of the Lithuanian diplomatic service in the near future.