1st Edition

Small States in Europe Challenges and Opportunities

Edited By Anders Wivel, Robert Steinmetz Copyright 2010
    248 Pages
    by Routledge

    248 Pages
    by Routledge

    The effects of recent institutional change within the European Union on small states have often been overlooked. This book offers an accessible, coherent and informative analysis of contemporary and future foreign policy challenges facing small states in Europe. Leading experts analyze the experiences of a number of small states including the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Iceland, Austria and Switzerland. Each account, written to a common template, explores the challenges and opportunities faced by each state as a consequence of EU integration, and how their behaviour regarding EU integration has been characterized. In particular, the contributors emphasize the importance of power politics, institutional dynamics and lessons of the past. Innovative and sophisticated, the study draws on the relational understanding of small states to emphasize the implications of institutional change at the European level for the smaller states and to explain how the foreign and European policies of small states in the region are affected by the European Union.

    Part I Small States in Europe: Defining the Issues at Stake; Chapter 1 Introduction, Robert Steinmetz, Anders Wivel; Chapter 2 From Small State to Smart State: Devising a Strategy for Influence in the European Union, Anders Wivel; Chapter 3 Small State Diplomacy Compared to Sub-State Diplomacy: More of the Same or Different?, David Criekemans, Manuel Duran; Chapter 4 Small States and the European Security and Defence Policy, Clive Archer; Part II The Challenges and Opportunities of Small European States; Chapter 5 Small States and Innovation, Rainer Kattel, Tarmo Kalvet, Tiina Randma-Liiv; Chapter 6 Small States, Power, International Change and the Impact of Uncertainty, Toms Rostoks; Chapter 7 The Fluid Nature of Smallness: Regulation of the International System and the Challenges and Opportunities of Small States, Plamen Pantev; Part III The Experience of Small States with the European Union; Chapter 8 In a League of its Own? The Netherlands as a Middle-Sized EU Member State, Jan Rood; Chapter 9 The Foreign Policy of Luxembourg, Jean-Marie Frentz; Chapter 10 Slovakia and the Czech Republic in the European Integration Process: Birds of a Feather Flying Apart?, Mats Braun; Chapter 11 Cyprus, Small-Powerhood and the EU’s Principles and Values, Costas Melakopides; Chapter 12 Neutrality Inside and Outside the EU: A Comparison of Austrian and Swiss Security Policies After the Cold War, Jean-Marc Rickli; Chapter 13 The Icelandic Crash and its Consequences: A Small State without Economic and Political Shelter, Baldur Thorhallsson; Part IV Conclusion; Chapter 14 Conclusion, Robert Steinmetz, Anders Wivel;

    Biography

    Robert Steinmetz, is a Press Secretary, Personal Assistant to the Minister, General Secretariat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Luxembourg and Anders Wivel, is an Associate Professor, PhD, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

    'The ongoing transformation of the international political and economic order shows that small countries can be both victors and losers. This important volume tells how and why this happens.' Raimo Värynen, Director, The Finnish Institute of International Affairs 'Overall, the text has a number of significant strengths. The first is that it adds in some innovative ways to a growing body of literature on small states. Second, it has gathered a collection of contributors with a deep appreciation of both the practical realities of small states in the contemporary European environment and the analytical pitfalls of engaging in 'small state studies'. Third, the text offers a broad palette of small state experience from the microstates of Cyprus and Luxembourg to the intermediate-sized Netherlands.' Acta Politica