Small States and International Operations

Abstract

The following paper is about the role of ‘small states’ in international (peace) operations.¹ Not wanting to get lost in the quagmire of definitions what a ‘small’ state is, suffice it to say that ‘small states’ in this context refer to states other than the ‘Big Five’ (i.e. the five Permanent Members of the United Nations Security Council), as long as they are not hegemonial powers themselves. Actually, it might be better to use Michael Handel’s concept of ‘weak states’ because the ‘smallness’ of many countries in question is defined by the size of their neighbours rather than their own: Canada is small vis-à-vis the United States, and so is Austria vis-à-vis Germany (and both suffer from their own inferiority syndromes), yet Canada is more than 100 times bigger than Austria (and, by the way, 30 times the size of Germany), with more than four times as many inhabitants. To quote Handel: ‘The weak and powerful states have many common characteristics and problems. Any attempt to separate out the weak states as a totally different “breed” is artificial. No state is all powerful and no state is completely weak.’²