Agency, Security and Governance of Small States examines what seems to be a defining paradox of Small-State Studies: the simultaneous coexistence (and possible co-dependence) of vulnerability and opportunity related to small-state size.
This book analyses small states within the framework of this apparent paradox. Traditionally, Small-State Studies has focused on three guiding questions: what constitutes a ‘small state’? What explains small-state influence in global affairs? Are small states truly vulnerable to security threats given the expansion of multilateralism and regionalism throughout the world? This book contends that new questions should be asked which recognise the important shifts in twenty-first century security paradigms, to better understand how some states deploy their smallness as a resource for agency in supranational contexts. By varying historical, geographical, security, and governance contexts, the book embraces a most-different-cases approach. The historical perspective is often neglected in Small-State Studies but contributes to understanding how small states have often, over time, transformed perceived insecurity into agency. By focusing on different world regions, the authors enable the comparative analysis of collective actions, and the creation and implementation of institutions for ‘common sense purposes’ within a geographical region. Of particular contemporary importance, the book includes contributions which contend with hard-security issues such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, alongside other soft-security challenges. The comparison of case studies confirms that hard-security vulnerability and soft-security opportunities seem to be two sides of the same coin, which reinforces the book’s focus on small-state paradoxes, and raises the question of whether smallness can be considered the defining characteristic of governance in these countries.
This book will have a broad appeal because of the different world regions it analyses. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, and researchers of international relations, security, sustainability, governance, development, and political economy, as well as Small-State Studies.
Chapter 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. The publication of this book chapter as Open Access has been made possible by Western Sydney University.
Agency, Security and Governance of Small States examines what seems to be a defining paradox of Small-State Studies: the simultaneous coexistence (and possible co-dependence) of vulnerability and opportunity related to small-state size.
Introduction: Agency, Security, and Governance of Small States in a
Fast-Changing World Part I Small-State Theory: Reviewing the State of the
Art, Communis Opinio, and Beyond
1. The Power (Politics) of the Weak
Revisited: Realism and the Study of Small-State Foreign Policy
2. A Theory of
Shelter: Small-State Behaviour in International Relations
3. The Graded
Agency of Small States Part II Agency: The Art of Being Governed by Ones
Own Interests
4. Forever Small? A Longue Durée Perspective on Luxembourgs
Extantism, Governance, and Security
5. Security in the Spanish Philippines
(15651821): Shelter-Seeking and Securitisation in an Early Modern Colony
6.
Negotiating Smallness in Three Regional Contexts: Belize within Central
America, the Caribbean, and Neighbouring Mexico
7. What is a Small-State
Security Policy? Transpolitical Propagation in the Case of Luxembourg,
Singapore, and Lithuania Part III Security: Defining and Engaging Threats
8. Small States in the Pacific: Sovereignty, Vulnerability, and Regionalism
9. Security and Securitisation in the Pacific Islands: From Great-Power
Competition to Climate Change and Back Again
10. Cape Verde and the Defence
and Security Challenges in the Atlantic Corridor: The Case of the Approach to
the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO)
11. "Lets Forget that Slovakia
is Small": GLOBSEC, Status-Seeking, and Agency in Informal Elite Networks
Part IV Governance: Interactions Between Domestic and International Norms,
Rules, and Action
12. The Rise of Democracy in Luxembourgs Second World
War Government in Exile: Agency and Leadership at a Critical Juncture of
Luxembourgs Small-State Foreign Policy
13. Between Formal and Informal
Democracy: How the Domestic Politics of Small States Influences their
Security Policies
14. African Small Island Developing States (ASIDS) and Good
International Citizenship Conclusion: Insecurity of Their Own Making? A
Comparative Policy Coherence for Sustainable Development Analysis of
Small-State Governance
Thomas Kolnberger is Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Luxembourg, Institute for History (IHIST) and Coordinator of various research projects, most recently: Military History of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg in a Transnational Perspective. His fields of interest are the history of Luxembourg; small-state studies; military history; and historical and urban geography.
Harlan Koff is Professor of Social Sciences at the University of Luxembourg; GAMMA-UL Chair in Regional Integration and Sustainability at INECOL, A.C., Mexico; Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa; and Docent in Development Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. His research focuses on international development; comparative regional integration; and migration.
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