Stacked on top of each other along the Baltic coast, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are some of Europe's biggest success stories, acceding to the European Union in 2004. Estonia, home of the Singing Revolution, has northeastern Europe's best-preserved medieval town center in its capital, Tallinn. Latvia's capital, Riga, is the country's flourishing center of the arts, Art Nouveau architecture and nightlife. Lithuania, first to reassert its independence from the Soviet Union, boasts medieval Hanseatic ports, a restored 14th century castle and the UNESCO-listed Curonian Spit, a 60-mile strip of sand separating the Baltic Sea from the warm and shallow Curonian Lagoon. The Old Towns of all three capital cities are World Heritage Sites.

Learn about the region from our study leader, Kim Kavrell Savit, former Senior Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the State Department's former Director for Security and Law Enforcement to the New Independent States of the Former Soviet Union. Throughout the journey, meet with experts, business leaders and officials, including a high-ranking member of Lithuania's military who has played a key role in Lithuania's NATO arena. A Lithuanian-born career soldier in the U.S. Army, he returned to Lithuania in 1997 as an advisor to the Prime Minister on security issues. In Tallinn, visit with a former Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs who is now in private business and has a vast private art collection. And in Riga, speak with a representative of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA), an organization tasked with facilitating Latvian foreign investment and increasing Latvian competitiveness in both foreign and domestic markets.