How Should we Study the Foreign Policies of Small European States?

Resumo

This contribution starts off with a very brief overview and critique of some of the past and current research contributions to small state studies. The aim here is to highlight how the international relations of small states have been studied, rather than to present substantive empirical results of such research. After this critical analysis the discussion will be broadened by looking at the current status of foreign policy analysis (FPA) as such, and to ascertain to what extent small state studies can benefit from debates within the latter. However, since it is argued that FPA itself has problems due to its fragmentation into various largely incompatible approaches, the paper concludes with a brief presentation of an integrative framework for the analysis of all types of foreign policy, including those of small states. My message is essentially that the foreign policies of small states should be studies in the same manner as the foreign policy behaviour of all other types of states, and that in order for this to be feasible, we need an integrative framework which works equally well for both of these purposes.