Balt's thesis introduces the concept of the high-stakes arena to capture settings in which cooperation remains necessary but becomes politically costly and difficult to sustain.

Using a dual-lens approach that combines official discourse analysis with a practice-based study of diplomacy, the thesis shows how EU policy discourse was translated into locally workable diplomatic scripts. It highlights the everyday practices through which diplomats kept channels open, managed sensitivities and preserved room for manoeuvre, focusing in particular on diplomats from north-western EU member states in Türkiye between 2020 and 2024.

The thesis develops a typology of diplomatic styles that shows how diplomats adapted to mandates, peer expectations and host-country conditions while shaping EU leverage and external positioning. The typology offers a framework that can also be tested in other high-stakes diplomatic arenas.

Take a look at some photos taken during the defence