Clever leadership can transform a state’s smallness into an asset when promoting national and international interests at home and abroad. Good leadership skills are required to correctly prioritize and bargain in international surroundings. Small states need to defend their interest in their key sectors and within these sectors they need to be able to demonstrate leadership, offer clever solutions to problems, and wield positive influence. This can be achieved through consensus-forming, policy innovation and figure-heading external initiatives. It is thus vital for a small state to develop administrative competence in key areas and provide leaders with knowledge that will help them in taking initiative when needed and drive forward coalitions in issues the small state wants to move forward. Leadership skills are imperative to make this happen and secure successful diplomacy for a small state.

The Vilnius Winter School was the third intensive programme hosted by the project. The school was hosted from 26 January - 2 February 2020 under the heading Small State Leadership in Foreign and Security Policy. The main aim of the programme was to give a concentrated overview of small state foreign and security policy characteristics while also revealing the importance of the leadership component in it. Forms and aims of small states leadership in the field of foreign and security policy are directly related to the specific features determined by their size.