National Minorities and Citizenship Rights in Lithuania, 1988–93. By Vesna Popovski. New York: Palgrave, 2000. 255p. $65.00

Compared to neighboring Latvia and Estonia, there has been little attention paid to nationality issues in Lithuania, a country with fewer ethnic minorities (making up approximately 20% of the population) and a more inclusive citizenship policy than her Baltic neighbors. Also, Lithuania's main problems have concerned relations with its Polish minority, whereas Latvia and Estonia have large numbers of “Russian speakers.†This means that Russia has been less critical and has not sought to draw international attention to minority issues in Lithuania. As a result, the international community has praised Lithuania's laws for meeting international standards and has given a “pass†to Lithuania when it comes to the treatment of its ethnic minorities. Vesna Popovski seeks to challenge this positive assessment and is motivated by a concern for the actual implementation of laws, as opposed to the mere letter of the law, and seeks to discover the perceptions that minorities have toward their state and its policies.