In 2008, as part of a "nation branding" exercise—an attempt to give a country an easily recognizable identity—the Lithuanian communication specialists came up with the slogan "Lithuania—a brave country". At the time, the country's political elite were skeptical, but today, they identify with the label almost instinctively. Indeed, the small Baltic country has a population of less than 3 million and is in the borderlands of the EU, yet since 2020, it has stood up to three autocratic regimes: Belarus, China, and especially Russia.