In international politics, a country must meet a certain criteria in order to be viewed as a strong, important, and influential player. A nation’s economic power, military capacities, geographical size, and population are all factors that determine whether or not it will be viewed with strength or weakness. In the international arena, small nations are perceived as marginal players due to their inability to be influential and strong in multiple domains. Even though they are proven to be strong in one aspect they are not strong enough ‘players’ to be viewed as a superpower in international politics. Being a small size decreases the ability for a nation to be heard when standing next to a country that is a known superpower. This in turn causes
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The most obvious definition is by population, which Vellut breaks down into different classes; his overall view claims that a nation is considered small if their population is below ten million. Rothstein argues that a small power is a state that is able to recognize that they can not achieve the best means of security alone and need an alliance to gain that security. His point brings up one of the main concerns of a smaller nation, which is that being secure is more important rather than having power. Keohane brings forth another possible definition of a small state, claiming that a state is a small power when its leaders consider that it never will be able to make an impact in the international arena. As seen, there are multiple perceptions given when trying to determine what actually makes a nation a small power. Although a major problem faced by small states is their smaller population, multiple factors such as gross national product, military, and geographical size also aid in determining whether or not a state should be labeled small. However, having a smaller population directly affects some of the other factors, which is why population is such a determining factor of what makes a nation …show more content…
Luxembourg has the highest gross domestic product amongst all of the countries a part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This small country has also shown the ability to set aside its own interests in the European Union for the interests most common amongst the group and to spend more than “0.7 GNI on development cooperation.” If size and power were strictly based off of these characteristics, Luxembourg, along with many other small nations who fall under these criteria, would not be viewed as small and marginalized. However, due to their inability to stand tall and to provide the security for their country alone, these nations are marginalized powers without having influence and strength above or at an equal level to those countries of larger
The most obvious definition is by population, which Vellut breaks down into different classes; his overall view claims that a nation is considered small if their population is below ten million. Rothstein argues that a small power is a state that is able to recognize that they can not achieve the best means of security alone and need an alliance to gain that security. His point brings up one of the main concerns of a smaller nation, which is that being secure is more important rather than having power. Keohane brings forth another possible definition of a small state, claiming that a state is a small power when its leaders consider that it never will be able to make an impact in the international arena. As seen, there are multiple perceptions given when trying to determine what actually makes a nation a small power. Although a major problem faced by small states is their smaller population, multiple factors such as gross national product, military, and geographical size also aid in determining whether or not a state should be labeled small. However, having a smaller population directly affects some of the other factors, which is why population is such a determining factor of what makes a nation …show more content…
Luxembourg has the highest gross domestic product amongst all of the countries a part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. This small country has also shown the ability to set aside its own interests in the European Union for the interests most common amongst the group and to spend more than “0.7 GNI on development cooperation.” If size and power were strictly based off of these characteristics, Luxembourg, along with many other small nations who fall under these criteria, would not be viewed as small and marginalized. However, due to their inability to stand tall and to provide the security for their country alone, these nations are marginalized powers without having influence and strength above or at an equal level to those countries of larger