Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: International relations, grade: 1,0, University of Rostock, language: English, abstract: This work takes a look at how small states are characterized in the political science discipline of international relations, and what kinds of strategies they use to secure their interests in a globalized world. With the example of Ireland as a small and classically neutral state, the focus thereby lays on the foreign policy strategy of neutrality. Why do small European states adopt a neutral foreign policy and how does this strategy influence the development of the state? To understand the theoretical background of this theme and to get a clear understanding of the term, first the theoretical concept of small states in international relations needs to be explained in a small overview including various definitions and approaches regarding their foreign policy. Proceeding from a review of their different strategies, the specific neutral strategy gets examined depending the the early political-historical background, different kinds of neutrality and neutrality rights. This will then be applied to the specific Irish case. More in-depth focused here is the question: can the Irish foreign policy in the 21st century still be phrased as neutral and what consequences are entailed in the answer? To achieve this, there is the need for an analysis of the Irish neutrality concept and it's development. This will be done in the third part of this work by reviewing the political-historical background of the Irish derivation of the neutrality concept and later also taking into account the latest white paper regarding Ireland's foreign policy from 2015. Also a glance at the meso-level in form of the Irish participation in international organizations like the European Union will be helpful to evaluate Ireland's degree of neutrality. At the end, cases of neutrality conflicts are gonna be pointed out and discussed in regard to the research question.

Originally published in 1988, this book examines the experiences of neutral states in Europe during the Second World War and in the postwar peiod. It examines both the practical and the theoretical considerations and the interface between the two, and discusses the implications of the experience of these countries for small states generally

Essay from the year 2018 in the subject Cultural Studies - Basics and Definitions, grade: 2,0, University of Iceland, language: English, abstract: This essay outlines the correlation of neutrality and small states. It includes definitions of the term "neutrality" and the term "small state". In the research part of the essay the author shows five examples of five different countries and their motives to adapt neutrality. In the conclusion the author works out a possible scheme to explain why small states adapt neutrality.

Small States in and outside the European Union offers a broad overview of the small states problematic in Europe. It touches upon definition issues, history, security policy, neutrality, EU institutional aspects and also includes contributors from Central and Eastern European countries. It presents a thorough analysis of different scenarios for EU institutional reform and their repercussions on the influence of small member states. The comparative results are visualized in tables. The work contains several contributions from practitioners who give insight into policy games and issues of national sensitivity not usually covered by purely scholarly publications. The European environment has changed dramatically through the processes of regional integration and rising interdependence. Relations between European states both inside and outside the EU are governed as never before by rules, norms, and fixed procedures. The book investigates the consequences of these developments on the foreign and security policy of small states. Academics and professionals from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland, as well as from the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, elaborate on these issues. Institutional regulations and traditional power politics as well as the foreign and security policy traditions of the states concerned, including the question of neutrality, are investigated. In addition, the book identifies the main interests of small states in today's Europe and offers an overview of different strategies these states apply in the realm of foreign and security policy. The book is interesting for the case studies it offers as well as for the reflections it contains regarding fundamental questions of the essence of statehood in today's Europe.

Throughout the 20th century the Irish have claimed, at critical moments, that Ireland is a neutral state and that it has established a policy of "traditional neutrality." Here, Salmon examines these claims by first identifying the essence of neutrality and nonalignment and then applying that understanding to the Irish case. Arguing that Ireland has failed to meet the criteria normally associated with neutrality and nonalignment, he explores the controversial issue of whether neutrality is compatible with membership in the European Community, and compares the status of Ireland with those of Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Small States in the International System addresses the little understood foreign policy choices of small states. It outlines a theoretical perspective of small states that starts from the assumption that small states are not just large states writ small. In essence, small states behave differently from larger and more powerful states. As such, this book compares three theories of foreign policy choice: realism (and its emphasis on structural factors), domestic factors, and social constructivism (emphasizing norms and identity) across seven focused case studies from around the world in the 20th Century. Through an examination of the foreign policy choices of Switzerland, Ireland, Finland, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ethiopia, Somalia, Vietnam, Bolivia and Paraguay, this book concludes that realist theories built on great power politics cannot adequately explain small state behavior in most instances. When small states are threatened by larger, belligerent states, the small state behaves along the predictions of social constructivist theory; when small states threaten each other, they behave along realist predictions.