The Baltic's time has come. It is not only critical to Europe's security and increasingly a centre of political and military power in its own right; it is a reservoir of ideas and experiences that could shape the continent's future.

The Baltic offers by far the most successful examples of the reintegration of Europe's old capitalist and communist blocs. It abounds in pioneering environmental initiatives, ranging from the world's first geological "forever" storage facility for nuclear waste in Finland to its first "zero waste" community, on the Danish island of Bornholm. Brutalised by the 20th century, the rebounding economies of Poland, Finland and Estonia are case studies in the mobilisation of social resources and the transformative power of technology.

This books explores the history, their culture, their peculiarities and national dilemmas of all nine Baltic countries. At its core is a search for fresh answers to Europe's problems, at a point where the continent's previously dominant powers appear tired and divided. It is structured around reports from 13 places in the hinterland of the Baltic sea, each of which embodies a conundrum of wider relevance but is also fascinating in its own right. Baltic is based on well over a hundred interviews with heads of state and government, ministers, politicians, retired political leaders, military commanders, diplomats, NATO and intelligence officials, scholars, analysts and ordinary citizens. It leaves the people of the Baltic countries to speak for themselves, suspending the twin tendencies to either judge or romanticise them. Now more than ever, the rest of the West needs their perspectives.