The Baltics Exit the Ottawa Treaty – and Their Neighbors Follow
The coordinated withdrawal of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines and the announced intention of Finland and Poland to follow suit… 
The coordinated withdrawal of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines and the announced intention of Finland and Poland to follow suit in 2026 represent a fundamental shift in Europe's approach to humanitarian disarmament. Russia's closest allies within NATO are thus responding to a changed security environment in which high-intensity warfare has once again become a realistic scenario. This development raises the broader question of whether existing security norms are adequate for a conflict in which one of the key players systematically violates the rules.
The Ottawa Convention, officially known as the Convention on the…
