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Small States: A Tool for Analysis?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Peter R. Baehr
Peter R. Baehr*
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam
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Abstract

The usefulness of the concept of “small states” as an analytical tool is discussed in a review of books by Edward Azar and Marshall Singer. The size of states has both domestic and international ramifications. Authors who use the concept of “small states” struggle with the problem of defining it. Such definitions can be clear and unambiguous but arbitrary at the same time; more sophisticated definitions are also more ambiguous and difficult to apply to concrete cases. Inquiry into the role of small states in international politics is shown to be still in a very elementary stage. Although there does of course exist a continuum of size of states in international relations, small states form too broad a category for purposes of analysis.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , April 1975 , pp. 456 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1975

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References

1 Deutsch, Karl W. and others, Political Community and the North Atlantic Area: International Organization in the Light of Historical Experience (Princeton University Press 1957 Google Scholar).

2 Ibid., 5.

3 The most important of these are: Baker Fox, Annette, The Power of Small States: Diplomacy in World War II (University of Chicago Press 1959 Google Scholar); Vital, David, The Inequality of States: A Study of the Small Power in International Relations (Oxford University Press 1967 Google Scholar); Rothstein, Robert L., Alliances and Small Powers (New York and London: Columbia University Press 1968 Google Scholar); Mathisen, Trygve, The Function of Small States in the Strategies of the Great Powers (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1971 Google Scholar); two articles by Keohane, Robert O., “Lilliputians' Dilemmas: Small States in International Politics,” International Organization, xxiii (Spring 1969), 291–310 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “The Big Influence of Small Allies,” Foreign Policy, 1 (Spring 1971), 161 Google Scholar–82; East, Maurice A., “Size and Foreign Policy Behavior: A Test of Two Models,” World Politics, xxv (July 1973), 556 CrossRefGoogle Scholar–76.

4 Dahl, Robert A. and Tufte, Edward R., Size and Democracy (Stanford University Press 1973 Google Scholar).

5 Ibid., 5.

6 Ibid., 138, 140.

7 ibid., 122.

8 Vital (fn. 3), 8.

9 Keohane in International Organization (fn. 3), 296.

10 Rothstein (fn. 3), 29.

11 Coplin, William D., Introduction to International Politics (Chicago: Markham 1971), 128 Google Scholar ft.

12 See Blair, Patricia Wohlgemuth, The Ministate Dilemma (New York: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 1968 Google Scholar); Rapaport, Jacques, Muteba, Ernest, and Therattil, Joseph J., Small States and Territories: Status and Problems (New York: Arno Press 1971 Google Scholar).

13 Holsti, Ole R., “The Belief System and National Images: A Case Study,” Journal of Conflict Resolution, vi (September 1962), 244 CrossRefGoogle Scholar–52.

14 Morgenthau, Hans J., Politics Among Nations (4th ed.; New York: Knopf 1967), 4 Google Scholar.