scholarly journals From the ‘Small but Smart State’ to the ‘Small and Entrepreneurial State’: Introducing a Framework for Effective Small State Strategies within the EU and Beyond

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Revecca Pedi ◽  
Katerina Sarri
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Small States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Small State ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Effective Strategies ◽  
State Strategy ◽  
Entrepreneurial Action ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

AbstractAs the current international system is leaning towards multipolarity, small states face the danger of their influence being diminished and their interests being ignored. Small states in Europe and within the European Union might find themselves in such a predicament. In order to overcome it, they are in need of effective strategies. Literature on the international relations of small states suggests that, despite their limitations, small states are able to pursue their goals and succeed in the international system. Small state studies employ the ‘small but smart state’ concept for a small state that can maximize its influence. Despite being widely used, the latter lacks analytical value and remains a cliché. The objective of this article is to pin down the ‘small but smart’ state strategy and based on that to provide a comprehensive framework for the analysis and the design of effective small state strategies. We suggest that the ‘small but smart’ state strategy shares many elements with the entrepreneurial action, as the latter is extended from its business origins to include a specific strategy. We draw on the field of entrepreneurship to explore the ways it can enhance our understanding of the international relations of small states and we introduce a framework for the ‘small and entrepreneurial state’ strategy. The notion of the ‘small and entrepreneurial state’ adds more depth and rigor into our small state analyses as well as reinvigorates a fragmented and repetitive literature. Last but not least, our ‘small and entrepreneurial state’ approach can be of use for both small state scholars and policy makers.

The Regional Path to Peaceful Change: What the Asian and European Experiences Tell Us

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-545
Author(s):  
Mark Beeson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
International System ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Security Challenges ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Eu

AbstractOne of the more striking, surprising, and optimism-inducing features of the contemporary international system has been the decline of interstate war. The key question for students of international relations and comparative politics is how this happy state of affairs came about. In short, was this a universal phenomenon or did some regions play a more important and pioneering role in bringing about peaceful change? As part of the roundtable “International Institutions and Peaceful Change,” this essay suggests that Western Europe generally and the European Union in particular played pivotal roles in transforming the international system and the behavior of policymakers. This helped to create the material and ideational conditions in which other parts of the world could replicate this experience, making war less likely and peaceful change more feasible. This argument is developed by comparing the experiences of the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their respective institutional offshoots. The essay uses this comparative historical analysis to assess both regions’ capacity to cope with new security challenges, particularly the declining confidence in institutionalized cooperation.

scholarly journals Interdependance, linkage et système international : de l'analyse conceptuelle aux problèmes de politique étrangère

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 329-352
Author(s):  
Irnerio Seminatore
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Political Context ◽  
International Policy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The North ◽  
Interdependence Theory ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Impact

The emergence and evolution of the literature dealing with interdependence in the international System is looked into. An attempt is made to show its significance and main points as well as its implications. The debates on interdependence within the North-American political context are regarded as solutions to the preceding issues on dependence. Interesting passages are dedicated to the impact of the interdependence theory on the interpretation of the international system, as illustrated by two schools of thought in foreign policy (Kissinger-Brzezinski). Linkage of the tactical and strategic aspects to the economic and political interrelation of international relations, as put forward by policy makers, has brought to the fore the difficulties and limits of negotiation in the face of competition and in the aftermath of confrontation. This paper offers subtle, yet positive, conclusions on the use of the interdependance theory in international policy.

Small States

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yee-Kuang Heng
Keyword(s):  
Soft Power ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
International System ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Small States ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Small State ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Strategic Competition ◽  
Endogenous Variables

Scholarship in international studies has usually tended to focus on the great powers. Yet, studying small state behavior can in fact reveal deep-seated structural changes in the international system and provide significant insights into the management of power asymmetries. Overcoming the methodological limitations of gigantism in scholarship and case study selection is another epistemological benefit. Rather than conventional assumptions of weaknesses and vulnerabilities, research on small states has moved in fascinating directions toward exploring the various strategies and power capabilities that small states must use to manage their relationships with great powers. This means, even in some cases, attempts to forcibly shape their external environments through military instruments not usually associated with the category of small states. Clearly, small states are not necessarily hapless or passive. Even in terms of power capabilities that often define their weaknesses, some small states have in fact adroitly deployed niche hard power military capabilities and soft power assets as part of their playbook. These small states have projected influence in ways that belie their size constraints. Shared philosophies and mutual learning processes tend to underpin small state strategies seeking to maximize whatever influence and power they have. These include forming coalitions, principled support for international institutions, and harnessing globalization to promote their development and security interests. As globalization has supercharged the rapid economic development of some small states, the vicissitudes that come with interdependence have also injected a new understanding of vulnerability beyond that of simply military conflict. To further complicate the security environment, strategic competition between the major powers inevitably impacts on small states. How small states boost their “relevance” vis-à-vis the great powers has broader implications for questions that have animated the academy, such as power transitions and the Thucydides Trap in the international system. While exogenous systemic variables no doubt remain the focus of analysis, emerging research shows how endogenous variables such as elite perceptions, geostrategic locations and availability of military and economic resources can play a key role determining the choices small states make.

International Relations and the European Union

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hill ◽  
Michael Smith ◽  
Sophie Vanhoonacker
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
The Third ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
Key Policy

International Relations and the European Union takes a unique approach by incorporating the study of the EU's world role into the wider field of international relations. The text explains the EU's role in the contemporary world. Beginning with an examination of theoretical frameworks and approaches, the text goes on to address the institutions and processes that surround the EU's international relations. Key policy areas, such as security and trade, are outlined in detail, alongside the EU's relations with specific countries, including the United States, China, India, and Russia. Updates for the third edition include expanded discussions of three key perspectives to provide a rounded picture of the EU's place in the international system: as a sub-system of international relations, as part of the process of international relations, and as a power in its own right.

scholarly journals IS RELIGION INHERENTLY VIOLENT? RELIGION AS A THREAT AND PROMISE FOR THE GLOBAL SECURITY

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-314
Author(s):  
Natalia Vlas
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Analysis ◽  
Deductive Reasoning ◽  
International System ◽  
Global Security ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World

The paper tackled the extremely hot relationship between religion and security and argued that religion is both a threat and a promise for global security. Methodologically, the paper falls within the area of conceptual analysis. By making use of both inductive and deductive reasoning, it tried to find answers to the following questions: Is religion inherently violent? and What are the prospects that religion might contribute rather to peace and stability than to conflict and destruction within the international system? The paper comprised four sections. The first one outlined the background of the discussion, emphasizing that the world is facing a worldwide resurgence of religion, and tried to assess the meaning of the politicization of religion for the global security. The second section comprised a few reflections on the nexus between religion and violence, attempting to prove that no religion is inherently violent or inherently peaceful, as many would assume. The third part explored the positive nexus between religion and security and the last part comprised the conclusions and some recommendations meant to improve the ability of International Relations practitioners and policy-makers to make religion part of the solution to the global security dilemmas, instead of treating it exclusively as part of the problem

scholarly journals Globalization 4.0 and New Modes of International Cooperation

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-92
Author(s):  
Karoline Postel-Vinay ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
International System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Private Goods ◽  
Social Fabric ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Structural Impact ◽  
Global Condition

Since the late 19th century, the international scene has witnessed several waves of globalization that have transformed regulation and cooperation between nations. The current wave – that economists have defined as “globalization 4.0” – is shaped by an industrial revolution that combines digital, physical and biological transformations. Digital technology has a deep structural impact on public and private goods such as health, education, transportation or energy, which changes the terms of the global condition. It disrupts both the organization of societies and the relation between individuals and globalization. Compared to previous waves of globalization, globalization 4.0 affects the international system and runs throughout the global social fabric by increasing throughout the world the level of inequalities and by triggering subsequent polarization and fragmentation. In this global context, our current modes of cooperation and regulation are facing growing issues of legitimacy and efficiency, that are not entirely new, but that are now becoming particularly acute. Those issues of legitimacy and efficiency are furthermore complicated by a shared experience of disconnection from globalization – the rise of the globalization’s so-called “left-behinds” – that could be characterized as a form of anomy at the international level. This complex challenge has not yet been fully embraced by the major institutions of global governance. There have been however responses at the sub-global level: connectivity politics, launched by China and followed by the European Union, is one illustration of the new paths that might be taken by global policy makers.

Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy Change: Kyrgyzstan’s U-Turns on the U.S. Air Base at Manas Airport

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-202
Author(s):  
Shairbek Dzhuraev
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Policy Change ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Small States ◽  
Small State ◽  
Foreign Policies ◽  
Foreign Policy Change ◽  
External Incentives ◽  
The U.S

Abstract Mainstream theories of international relations explain the foreign policies of small states based on the function of external incentives and pressures. This article challenges such explanations and analyzes Kyrgyzstan’s decisions concerning the U.S. air base at Manas between 2005 and 2010, which was a curious case of risk-taking in foreign policy by a small state. Applying a framework of “ideas, interests and institutions,” the article shows how changes in Kyrgyzstan’s foreign policy reflected a shift in the domestic context of policymaking.

Pakistan and Singapore as Small Powers

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 187-204
Author(s):  
Farhan Hanif Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Present Article ◽  
International System ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Small States ◽  
Theoretical Construct ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Small Powers

Abstract The subject of international relations and its theories are based primarily on what the great powers do. Major ir theories including realism and neorealism have put small states and powers at the very margins of their respective theories arguing that since they do not display any form of power at the national and systemic levels they could as easily be discarded from theoretical and empirical debate and analysis. The present article challenges this theoretical construct and seeks to investigate whether the small powers are innate non-players in the international system and hence ‘vulnerable’ entities or display forms of power vis-à-vis the great powers in which their ‘maneuverability’, influence and independence may be manifest. This is attempted with respect to a comparative analysis of Pakistan and Singapore in which both an endogenously driven explanation taking into account both states’ domestic constitutive features are brought into focus alongside a behaviorally-oriented exogenous explanation bordering on power and security.

scholarly journals Forma política e integração regional via União Europeia

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 280-305
Author(s):  
Luiz Felipe Brandão Osório
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
International System ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Decline ◽  
Normative Development ◽  
System A ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Political Form

O advento da década de 1990 trouxe ao sistema internacional um cenário de mudanças substanciais, as quais se refletiram fundamentalmente na expansão do direito e das organizações internacionais. Nesse panorama, aprofundaram-se as iniciativas de integração regional, cujo vetor prioritário, o econômico, conheceu um desenvolvimento institucional e normativo inédito. É, no entanto, nos anos 2000, no ápice desse período, que a experiência mais desenvolvida nesses moldes de integração, a União Europeia, entrará em uma espiral de crise sem precedentes. A explicação da contradição entre o aprofundamento formal e o ocaso econômico passará por uma visão materialista das relações internacionais, a qual focará na forma política internacional como elemento nodal para extrapolar a aparência e desnudar os recônditos da essência desse fenômeno social. Por isso, buscar-se-á nas raízes da consolidação do projeto comunitário pós-Maastricht, dentro da nova face do capitalismo, o pós-fordista, a elucidação das fraturas da integração regional em meio ao sistema internacional. É justamente o avanço na arquitetura formal capitalista que gesta a crise das experiências integracionistas mais desenvolvidas, como se comprova na mirada crítica sobre o arranjo comunitário. Palavras-chave: forma política; integração regional; organizações internacionais; União Europeia.     Abstract: The advent of the 1990s brought to the international system a scenario of substantial changes, which were fundamentally reflected in the expansion of law and binternational organizations. Within this panorama, the regional integration initiatives were intensified, whose priority, the economic vector, was an unprecedented institutional and normative development. It is in the 2000s that the most developed experience in these forms of integration, the European Union will enter an unprecedented crisis spiral. The explanation of the contradiction between the formal deepening and the economic decline will pass through a materialist view of international relations, which will focus on the international political form as a nodal element to extrapolate the appearance and undress the essence of this social phenomenon. Therefore, the roots of the consolidation of the post-Maastricht communitarian project will be sought within the new face of capitalism, the post-Fordist, and the elucidation of fractures of regional integration within the international system. It is precisely the advance in the formal capitalist architecture that causes the crisis of the more developed integrationist experiences, as evidenced in the critical look on the communitarian arrangement. Key words: political form; regional integration; international organizations; European Union.     Recebido em: novembro/2016. Aprovado em: setembro/2017.

Back of the queue: Brexit, status loss, and the politics of backlash

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 631-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Freedman
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International System ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Basic Premise ◽  
Primary Mechanism

Status anxiety is not a necessary condition for backlash movements, and yet, both are highly complementary. Across political levels, from the community and state to the international system, status anxiety is often cited as a principal grievance and motivator of backlash politics. This article challenges the basic premise behind this framing by arguing that status loss – as a subset of status anxiety – and backlash politics, are essentially co-constitutive phenomena. Status loss can certainly propel backlash movements to form, but claims of status loss and decline are also uniquely exploitable mechanisms for bringing backlash movements into existence. Rather than treat objective status loss as an obvious cause of backlash movements, then, this article switches the focus to how subjective narratives of status loss are constructed, promoted, retrieved, and contested, in order to either advance, or oppose, the cause of backlash entrepreneurs. Doing so illustrates a primary mechanism of backlash politics, but also a primary mechanism of status loss, challenging dominant intrinsic and material premises on the role of status in international relations. This discussion is illustrated through a focus on Britain’s 2016 referendum on the European Union, and the extent to which both Leave and Remain campaigners elevated the rhetoric of status loss in defence of alternative pasts, presents, and futures.

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