International Relations, Security of Small States

This chapter looks at Cyprus as a status seeker in the Eastern Mediterranean and sheds some new light on Cyprus’ role in the region as well as on the study of small state status in the discipline of the International Relations. The authors investigate Cyprus’ status seeking strategy, assess its effectiveness and discuss its impact, by exploring its relationships with the great powers, the EU and with its neighbours in the region. Their findings indicate that Cyprus’ status seeking strategy has been successful. The Republic of Cyprus is being recognized as a key player in the region, as a “good power” and a useful partner. Moreover, the authors suggest that Cyprus status seeking strategy has laid the foundations for changes in the Eastern Mediterranean. In addition, they argue that in the case of Cyprus status seeking is not an end in itself. Cyprus seeks to better its position and harness the gains from that improvement. Thus, this chapter shows that even a small, occupied, peripheral small state can succeed in status seeking and improve not only its status, but also enhance conditions for cooperation, peace, stability, security in a region. That said, the authors underline that changes in the Eastern Mediterranean are at an embryonic stage and Cyprus’ advanced status in the region remains fluid and vulnerable.

By September 1939, Luxembourgish diplomatic efforts to see the neutral status of the Grand Duchy reaffirmed by a multilateral declaration of the European powers had reached a dead end. With the outbreak of hostilities, the country found itself caught between the Maginot and Siegfried Line, hence risking to become a battle-contested area between the war-waging armies. To make the situation even more difficult, neutral Luxembourg could not call upon a strong military to protect its national integrity but had to rely merely on its 700-head strong Force Armée. Besides their numerical inferiority, these armed forces were – due to their police-like character – neither organized, trained nor equipped to meet the requirements of a “real” military deployment along the national borders facing Germany and France. Worst of all, an internal order even forbade the troops to use their weapons in case of an enemy invasion – seemingly making it a national military without any military value or raison d’être in the face of the imminent conflict.
This contribution aims to discuss the role of the Luxembourgish armed forces in the Phoney War by analysing their functions and tasks through military documents in the Foreign affairs section of the Luxembourgish National Archives. By examining the steps and measures taken by the Force Armée in face of the conflict, the paper focusses on its potential room for manoeuvre, its role and its actual raison d’être in the Phoney War. In the face of a largely inexistent Luxembourgish military historiography, the contribution finally also tries to provide a clearer picture of the Luxembourgish armed forces before 1940 in general by giving deeper insight into the institutional characteristics and dispositions of the Force Armée.

This paper aims to identify central elements of Icelandic foreign policy discourse in the new millennium. The intent is to examine Iceland through the theoretical lens of critical geopolitics, neo-liberalism and small state theory. It is argued that the Icelandic political identity is an important factor in policy making. This identity is both connected to historical perceptions of the Icelandic nation state which foundation is seen as an Icelandic creation harking back to the clan based society of the Middle Ages (Halfdanarson 2004, p. 132), and to the special geographical position during the Cold War, when Iceland was an important ally for the United States of America and NATO (Thorhallsson et al 2004).
Iceland became a sovereign state in 1918 and a republic in 1944. In 1949 Iceland became a founding member of NATO and in 1951 accepted the protection of an American defence force on the island, thus Icelandic security and foreign policy characteristic had more to do with transatlantic relations rather than with European relations. It was not until the 1970s that Iceland joined EFTA2; the most important reason was to secure free trade for fish on the European market. After the end of the Cold War the Icelandic nation state was subject to various changes. Iceland joined the EEA agreement in the 1990s and, in the aftermath of the departure of the American defence force in 2006 and the economic collapse in 2008, the state applied to become a full member of the EU in 2009.

The Serbian Wikileaks. Exposing the apparatus of the state security. " Col. Hans Landa: [to Perrier LaPardite] I love rumors! Facts can be so misleading, where rumors, true or false, are often revealing. " From the movie 'Inglorious Basterds' (2009) by Quentin Tarantino Abstract: In order to help Vojislav Šešelj (the leader of the Serbian Radical Party) at his trial at the ICTY (2007-2016), the Serbian government has put on disposal to his defense team a couple of thousands of documents of the Serbian State Security. In 2010 the Serbian Radical Party published these documents in four volumes, each volume containing 1000 pages of various state security documents: from simple reports, wiretaps, assessments, to classified state documents. Considering that after the fall of the Milosevic regime the Serbian State Security did not go under any process of lustration, these documents offer a privileged insight in what went on in the services of the state security. The study of these documents suggests a more thorough understanding of what went on 'behind the doors' of the Serbian political, military,

Հոդվածը նվիրված է ՀՀ արտաքին քաղաքականության պաշտոնական հայեցակարգի և պրակտիկայի՝ բազմավեկտորության գիտական բնորոշմանը համապատասխանության քննությանը։ Եզրակացվում է, որ այդ քաղաքականության պաշտոնական հայեցակարգը և պրակտիկան համապատասխանում են ոչ թե բազմավեկտորության, այլ միավեկտոր ենթադաշնակցման բնորոշմանը։ Ներկայացված են առաջարկություններ այդ քաղաքականությունը բազմավեկտորության հիմնասկզբունքներին համապատասխան կառուցելու վերաբերյալ։

Статья посвящена анализу соответствия официальной концепции и практики внешней политики РА научному определению многовекторности. Заключается, что практика внешней политики Армении соответствует ее официальной концепции, а они оба соответствуют научному определению не многовекторности, а одновекторного примыкания. Также представлены предложения по построению внешней политики РА в соответствии с основными принципами многовекторности.

The article aims at studying the compliance of Armenia’s foreign policy’s official concept and its practice with the scientific definition of a multi-vector foreign policy. It is concluded that Armenia’s foreign policy practice and its official concept correspond to the scientific definition not of a multi-vector, but of a univector/bandwagoning foreign policy. Also, some recommendations for building a multi-vector foreign policy of Armenia are given.

Koncept male države često se napada u znanosti zbog neprihvaćanja mogućnosti svrstavanja značajki dinamičnog svijeta, pa i država, u kategorije. Različitost primijenjenih kvantitativnih i kvalitativnih kriterija definiranja malih država omogućuje kombiniranje dvaju ili više kriterija, dajući pritom različite definicije malih država. Primjenom dvaju kvantitativnih kriterija, površine i broja stanovnika, u radu je napravljena klasifikacija malih država, koja pokazuje visoku podudarnost malog broja stanovnika i male površine država. Male države, kategorizirane prema primijenjenim kriterijima, čine gotovo trećinu svih svjetskih država, a nalaze se u gotovo svim svjetskim geopolitičkim regijama te su ponajviše nastale procesom dekolonizacije i raspadom višenacionalnih komunističkih federacija. Više od polovine malih svjetskih država čine male otočne države. Bez obzira na međusobne različitosti kod malih je država, posebice otočnih, moguće identificirati više zajedničkih značajki.

Sri Lanka, with its unique position in the centre of the Indian Ocean, is the focus of widespread conjecture in recent strategic discourse. With China’s growing prominence in South Asia through efforts such as the Belt and Road Initiative, questions abound in the strategic community as to whether Colombo will eventually host a Chinese military base. Given the enormous implications of such a move, it is helpful to think about Sri Lanka across geostrategic, regional, and national levels to understand its place within the wider Indo-Pacific. At the geostrategic level, Sri Lanka can draw on its experience from the Cold War of navigating great power politics. Within South Asia. It is accustomed to being the weaker actor in an asymmetric relationship with India but has the opportunity to strengthen its relationships with regional countries. Sri Lanka’s biggest challenge is at the national level, where it is confronting a worsening economic crisis.

Հոդվածում վերլուծվում և ըստ վերջնարդյունքի՝ պետության անվտանգության և ինքնուրույնության վրա ազդեցության, խմբավորվում են մեծ տերությունների նկատմամբ փոքր պետությունների անվտանգության մի շարք ռազմավարություններ։ Առաջարկվում է փոքր պետությունների արտաքին անվտանգության բոլոր ռազմավարությունները բաժանել չորս խմբի՝ համադրման, հակադրման, ինքնաբացառման և կցորդման։ Մասնավորապես,
քննվում են առաջին երկու խմբերում դասվող ռազմավարությունների շարքերն ու դրանց հիմնական բնութագրիչները, վեր են հանվում այդ ռազմավարությունների կիրառման հիմնապայմանները։ Եզրակացության մեջ ներկայացվում են այդ երկու խումբ ռազմավարությունների հիմնական տարբերություններն ու ընդհանրությունները։

After a long summer replete with tensions and incidents in both the South China and East China Seas, the new year failed to bring renewed hopes for a peaceful resolution to the myriad territorial conflicts casting a shadow on the Asia-Pacific Region. Rather the contrary, renewed incidents, naval rearmament, claims and counterclaims, not always veiled threats to resort to force, and decentralized boycott campaigns and cyberspace clashes. One novelty was the decision by the Philippines to try a new tack in its clash with China, resorting to a tool not previously employed by any of the claimants, namely a request for arbitration under UNCLOS (the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea). Although this gambit was rejected by China, and the ultimate fate of the case is still uncertain, this paper examines the legal positions of Manila and Beijing in the context of their wider dispute, and the far-reaching implications of the case.

The request had to take into account China’s decision to opt out of UNCLOS arbitration on certain issues pertaining to their conflict, above all the exact delimitation of maritime borders. Although the Philippines’ arbitration request did not thus refer to maritime boundaries per se, it is still not  completely clear whether the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) will accept the case. An arbitration tribunal, made up of five judges, has been convened, but has not yet ruled on whether it has jurisdiction. Of particular interest in light of the ongoing China-Japan territorial conflict over Diaoyutai/Senkakus is the fact that ITLOS is headed by a Japanese judge. Although not a party to the South China Sea dispute, Tokyo has provided a measure of support on maritime issues to Manila and Hanoi in recent years. The US and India are also strongly interested in the dispute.

Some see the case as a test of whether international law and tribunals such as ITLOS can contribute to peaceful resolution of outstanding territorial disputes in Asia in a time of profound transformation. It is particularly relevant in view of the disparity in size and military potential between the Philippines and China, although the former is supported by other powers.

The paper examines all these legal issues, within their wider political, economic, diplomatic, and military context.

This article aims at identifying the characteristics of the foreign policy behaviour of small states, in particular, the main features and reasons for their peculiar behaviour in the international arena. The author analyses the main approaches to the definition of small states and argues the scientific preference for the use of one of the varieties of an integrated approach. Based on the results of previous studies, he describes the main common features of the foreign policy behaviour of small states, but a reservation is made that the manifestation of these features in practice is situational and contextual. It is concluded that the reasons for the described signs of a peculiar foreign policy behaviour of small states is a combination of a regional security complex and its order, economic development and foreign policy identity of each particular small state, in which the type of regional security complex is crucial.

Key words։ small state, great power, foreign policy, foreign policy behaviour, regional security complex, regional security order

This article supports growing calls to 'take small states seriously' in the international political economy but questions prevailing interpretations that 'smallness' entails inherent qualities that create unique constraints on, and opportunities for, small states.