The book “Small States and International Security: Europe and Beyond” has been edited by Clive Archer, Alyson J.K. Bailes, and Anders Wivel. Clive Archer is a Research Professor in the Department of Politics and Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University and was previously a Professor at Aberdeen University. He has researched and published widely on the affairs of the Nordic region, Arctic cooperation, international organizations, and the European Union.
Alyson J.K. Bailes was a former British diplomat, former British Ambassador to Finland, political scientist, and polymath. Before her death in April 2016, she was Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, an Adjunct Professor at the University of Iceland, and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe. Security Studies was her specialty.
Similarly, Anders Wivel is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Copenhagen. His research interests include political realism, power politics, and foreign policy, in particular, the foreign policy of small states. Altogether, sixteen scholars have contributed to the book.
This book was first published in 2014 by Routledge, 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN, and a Special Nepal Edition was printed by Saurabh Printers Pvt. Ltd., India, in 2017. With a volume of 264 pages, the book has fourteen chapters in total, which are broadly divided into three parts – Small States Security Revisited: History, Concepts, Theory; Small State Security in Europe; and Comparative Insights.
The book primarily focuses on the ‘Lilliputian’ states and their security concerns from existential threats. It is a masterpiece for those interested in comparative studies of small states of whole regions, including some flavor of the microstates too. The authors agree that there is no unanimous definition and criterion for small states (p.6). It varies among institutions, scholars, etc., as they have built up certain contextual criteria for addressing issues of their particular concerns. It is also a relative issue. Here in the book, the population has been taken as one strong criterion for defining a small state besides geographical minuscule (p.15).
The idea has focused on the shift from traditional security definitions emphasizing defense and armaments to new security concerns such as economic, societal, and environmental security, which is very pertinent and is today’s reality. Also, key policy challenges for small states have been examined and applied in the regional case studies. Though without any theoretical proofing or basis, the book has followed the strategy to start from a shared definition of small states, to focus on the security challenges and opportunities of small states during the time when the book was written and the immediate past, and to structure the analyses within each part of the book with a set of questions which it tries to answer in each relevant chapter.
They discussed how the transformation of small state security necessitates the development and application of new security concepts and extends the range of possible solutions. Similarly, it has analyzed a number of European cases in order to describe and explain the security predicament of small European states today and how they respond. It has also explored examples of small state security in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to see how they compare or contrast with the European experience.
They argued that today small states enjoy more international prestige and visibility than at any other time in history.
Under Part I, there are five chapters – Setting the Scene: Small States and International Security; Small States, Survival and Strategy; Economic Security and Size; Societal Security and Small States; and Environmental Security and Small States.
The first chapter deals with defining the concept of security and gives ideas of the importance of security for both big powers and Lilliputian states.
In the chapter on Small States, Survival, and Strategy, the authors discuss multifunctional definitions of security, and suggest a spectrum of issues prima facie relevant for all states, and another on the implications of smallness itself for states confronting such security agendas, among others. According to authors Alyson J.K. Bailes, Jean-Marc Rickli, and Baldur Thorhallsson:
The authors also proposed four comprehensive security agendas for small states, which seem very relevant and useful both for academic discussion as well as application. Under four broad categories, all security threats that have the possibility to bear in small states are mentioned. Those four categories are Military/hard security; non-state violence; economic security; and accidents and natural hazards.
In short, this part has not only set the tone of the book but also, to some extent, defined small states and looked at the small states’ security challenges from the lenses of survival and strategy, economic security and size, social security, as well as environmental security. What it has found is that every small state has its own specific concerns that do not necessarily match with others.
In the second part of the book, there are five chapters that deal with illustrative groups of small states and microstates in Europe. There are some ten such countries in Europe. They consider countries having below one million population as microstates. They don’t maintain armed forces, and they are protected by a large immediate neighbor.
Examples of Nordic states show why the Nordic region has remained so stable since 1945, with good goodwill and visibility in global states for their promptness and international activism. The Nordic states focused on non-zero-sum solutions and the wider acceptance of law-based norms in international relations (p.97).
Within Nordic countries, there are no tensions or damaging competition. They rely on NATO/EU for their defense (p.96). Whereas the Baltic states, three countries whose situation is portrayed in the book as rather different from the Nordic states. Their maximum efforts are to integrate with the EU and NATO rather than get closer to Russia due to the hard security concern (pp.120–121). Sustainable energy supplies mean a major stake for Baltic security and the political stability and competitiveness of small Baltic economies and social life, but lagging in sustainable and diversified energy supplies, they are prone to fragile security situations and political vulnerability (p.122).
Going further, in the Western Balkan (WB) region, seven countries were studied and mentioned in the book. As per the authors, in terms of the size of the population and territory, GDP, and military expenditure, the WB states relatively come under the category of small in the European context. Except for Albania, all WB countries got independent after the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the former Yugoslavian state in the 1990s. They are young and still in the state-building process, whereas Kosovo, the youngest WB state, is still in the process of gaining international recognition. These states are vying for membership in the EU and NATO; upon joining these blocs, they are considering that the conflict and threats in the region will completely vanish. All are underway to the accession or membership of the EU and NATO; some are already in those umbrellas (pp.142–143).
Also, the case of Georgia and Moldova has been discussed in one separate chapter. The authors projected that these two countries’ security challenges are likely to continue in the days to come. Further, they wrote that Moldova would remain a source of instability in the region (p.163). Going through the microstates of Europe, due to the development of a series of strategies, they have been economically viable despite having minimal capabilities of statehood. The strong argument the authors give is that as good neighbors to larger states, microstates managed to avoid conflict (p.180).
Part III is about comparative insights. This part includes four chapters – Botswana; Small State Security in Asia; Caribbean Small States Perspectives; and Security Concerns of Designed Spaces. In the case of Botswana, the greatest developmental challenge pointed out by the author is the fairer distribution of resources (p.197). From smaller Asian states, authors brought some flavor of Sri Lanka and the city-state of Singapore and their security experiences (p.205).
As it gives comprehensive insights including all regions, it might be a good reference book for scholars whose focus is on small states’ security.
After going through the pages of the book thoroughly, I found that the issues and concerns of small/microstates are varied. Furthermore, it depends on location, immediate neighbors’ size and strength, as well as building their own norms and visibility, which might bring different goodwill such as Luxembourg and the Nordic states. A good example I should think of is San Marino, one of the world’s oldest republics surrounded on all sides by Italy, which has been continuing its existence.
Due to the exponential rise of science and technology, Industrialization 5.0, and disruptive technology, the future of small states, their security, and existential threats are further challenging. The book has missed interpreting them from that angle.
The book is more focused on European small/microstates and has the least mention of Asian and Pacific small states that have their own unique features. Nepal, in particular, has its own glorious history, is the oldest South Asian country, and has a unique historical struggle for her existence, which was also appreciated by Henry Kissinger in his book World Order.
Another difficulty or inconsistency found in the book is reaching common ground for defining small/macro states. It needs to be discussed academically, and a common understanding needs to be reached on how to categorize small/microstates, which could be applicable and acceptable widely.
Other than the above-mentioned points, a host of references and examples used by the authors are also key strengths of this book. The book carries useful messages from the South Asian small states’ perspective, which could be referenced in different ways.
