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Engineering Influence: The Subtile Power of Small States in the CSCE/OSCE

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Small States and Alliances

Abstract

The best-known theoretical works dealing with small states — either on their own in international relations or embedded within international organizations — have generally conceded the point that small states’ best security-preserving options are either to balance or bandwagon among the great powers in the system, serve as ‘buffer states’ between great powers, or rely on their strength in numbers in international organizations such as the United Nations to effect change.2 Even in the United Nations, however, with its defining principle of sovereign equality, small state influence still “...depends on their unity on major issues and the extent to which General Assembly resolutions...are perceived by the more powerful states to be meaningful expressions of the ‘general will’....”.3 Small states may have a numerical majority in international relations, but the advantage of numbers is cold comfort when it does not translate into power.

Ph. D. Candidate Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin — Madison.

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Authors
  1. Michael W. Mosser
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Militärwissenschaftliches Büro, Bundesministeriums für Landesverteidigung, Stiftgasse 2a, 1070, Vienna, Austria

    Erich Reiter

  2. Österreichisches Institut, Internationale Politik, Operngasse 20 B, 1040, Vienna, Austria

    Heinz Gärtner

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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Mosser, M.W. (2001). Engineering Influence: The Subtile Power of Small States in the CSCE/OSCE. In: Reiter, E., Gärtner, H. (eds) Small States and Alliances. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13000-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-13000-1_7

  • Publisher Name: Physica, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-7908-2492-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-662-13000-1

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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