SMALL STATES AND THE NEW SECURITY ENVIRONMENT.

• Author: Smith, Anthony

SMALL STATES AND THE NEW SECURITY ENVIRONMENT

Editors: Anne-Marie Brady and Baldur Thorhallsson

Published by: Springer, Switzerland, 2021, 230pp, 119.99 [euro].

Small states are said to be half of the world's states, although it is hard to be precise without any internationally agreed definition. Nonetheless, while much of the ink spilled on international relations focuses squarely on the large actors, more attention is needed on smaller actors and their acute dilemmas. Canterbury University's Anne-Marie Brady and the University of Iceland's Baldur Thorhallsson have edited a volume that features chapters mainly on Europe and the Middle East. This is the seventh book in Springer's series 'The World of Small States', which includes Professor Brady's 2019 edited volume that looked specifically at New Zealand.

Most of the chapters outline the attempts of European small states to position themselves vis-a-vis larger neighbours and external powers. For the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, close attention is paid to nearby Russia; and what emerges strongly is the attention these societies pay to wider social cohesion with regards to substantive Russian-speaking populations. Anne-Marie Brady outlines the curious case of

Albania, which unusually amongst European countries has a deep and complex history with China. Brady paints a picture of a modern Albania that is pretty accustomed to understanding the difficulties of an overwhelming dependency on one large partner. Many small states in and around Europe have had to consider post-Cold War alignments--Rasmus Mariager and Anders Wivel tell the fascinating story of Denmark's move from semi-neutrality to 'super ally' of the United States, getting itself heavily involved in Washington's interventions, notably including the Iraq War, in direct contrast to the views of other European capitals. Steven Murphy discusses a range of Europe's 'neutral' nations, including Ireland's attempts to parse the meaning of neutrality by differentiating 'political neutrality' from 'military neutrality'--Ireland, it seems, is willing to engage in defence links and deploy in coalitions, but stops short of joining a military pact. Apparently, there are many ways to be neutral, or alternatively formally aligned, which could pose an interesting discussion point about what the term 'alliance' actually means in contemporary times.

There are a few things to quibble about. One...