Small states in world politics by Matthias Maass

Author:Matthias Maass [Maass, Matthias]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, History, World, Political Ideologies, Nationalism & Patriotism, Europe
ISBN: 9781526108548
Google: Tm-5DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2017-11-01T03:21:45+00:00

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Small state survival and proliferation in twentieth-century systems of collective security and global governance, 1919–2016

… to fight … for the rights of nations great and small…1(Woodrow Wilson, 1915)

In the twentieth century, a hybrid system of power politics, collective security, and growing global governance prevailed. How did the small state fare in this environment? Interestingly enough, small states did remarkably well and during the height of the Cold War small state proliferation actually doubled their total number.

The twentieth century witnessed the reversal of the centuries-old downward trend in small state numbers. An environment developed that was increasingly supportive of small state survival, and the century’s second half in particular became not only highly conducive to small state survival but in fact strongly supportive of small state proliferation. As a result, the second half of the century saw an unprecedented increase in small state numbers. The early twentieth century witnessed the introduction of collective action and security and the beginnings of global governance. After the Second World War, the states system evolved further and the hardening of existing restraints and the inclusion of new limitations shaped it increasingly as global governance. The sudden end of the Cold War and rise of global terrorism forced changes on the system. The twentieth century saw the introduction of institutionalized systems of collective security and collective defense, which raised small state security significantly. Small states also found their security enhanced by the Cold War’s bipolarity. And when the legal norm of self-determination had hardened enough, the political environment was ripe for decolonization and large-scale small state creation. This highly accommodating environment remains in place today, and as a result new small states emerged during the post-Cold War and post-9/11 periods.

Systems of collective security in twentieth-century world politics: from Wilsonianism to a “New World Order”2 and beyond

Wilsonian Internationalism and the interwar years, 1919–39

As the First World War raged on, the US president Woodrow Wilson readied himself to challenge traditional international politics and European statesmen with his Liberal agenda. Shortly, he would propose to reorder international affairs, and his plan came to be known as Wilsonian Liberal Internationalism.

Peace negotiations at Paris: Realist traditions vs. Liberal visions

Much like the Westphalian peace negotiations in the 1640s and the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15, the peace negotiators in Paris in 1918–19 were charged not only with ending the recent war, but also with planning future peace. The horrific fighting of the war had left lasting impressions. Estimates are that more than fifteen million people had died and another twenty million were direct casualties of an ‘industrialized’ warfare that merged modern technologies and industrial production methods to push killing to previously unimaginable levels.

Clearly, the concert system had failed in the worst way. Unfortunately, there was no consensus among the key actors in Paris about how to organize future world politics. Should a “peace without victory”3 mark the beginning, or should it be again ‘to the victor go the spoils?’ Should the traditional European balance of power be reinstated or should it go to the ‘junkyard of history?’

The victorious allies were split.

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