Small states and international relations pedagogy: Exploring the creative agency frontier
The world’s smallest sovereign states, which in fact comprise the majority of sovereign states worldwide, have a great deal to teach us about different interpretations of power. Much international relations (ir) scholarship has traditionally focused on power as control or coercion; however, power c...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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2020
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| Online Access: | https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/oaiart?codigo=7849822 |
| Source: | OASIS: Observatorio de Análisis de los Sistemas Internacionales, ISSN 1657-7558, Nº. 32, 2020 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Julio-Diciembre), pags. 49-62 |
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| Summary: |
The world’s smallest sovereign states, which in fact comprise the majority of sovereign states worldwide, have a great deal to teach us about different interpretations of power. Much international relations (ir) scholarship has traditionally focused on power as control or coercion; however, power can also mean capability, which is accomplished through what this article identifies as creative agency. Here creative agency is defined as capability according to how one interprets power and the benefits associated with that power. Thus, certain components of power, such as regional or global hegemony, may not be relevant to creative agency; conversely, strong cultural identity or a niche economy may be essential. This article divides small states into three categories: (1) microstates, defined herein as states with populations of fewer than a half million and/or a non-sea area of fewer than 1,000 square kilometers; (2) states with populations of between a half million and one million; and (3) states considered small primarily in relation to their larger neighbors. It uses examples from all these categories to illustrate the phenomenon of creative agency with regard to state formation and type of government and governance. Because the focus of the article is pedagogy, the text includes references to key themes that instructors can introduce with small states, as well as to representative works on small states from political science, law, history, and anthropology. |
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