The discursive construction of security in the European Union (EU) candidate states has received little attention. One effect of this gap is to discreetly frame EU applicants as learners or adopters of Western concepts of security. This overlooks the key role of local intellectuals of statecraft in the making of security both in the candidate states and in the Western institutions with which these states integrate. Based on the case of Estonia, this paper exposes the essential obscurity and fluidity of security in Estonia, and highlights the role of Estonian intellectuals in the making and operationalizing of this fluidity. The paper thereby emphasizes the capacity of East European intellectuals of statecraft to influence the problematizations of security in these states themselves and in Western writings about them.
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