New Security Challenges of Small States

Abstract

Studies of small states' security predicament have traditionally focussed on warlike threats and internal conflict. With few or no military assets, such states are likely to be forced to seek shelter from stronger states and/or institutions, and if suffering internal violence they often attract outside intervention. However, the modern concept of security covers far more than these dimensions. For any state today, vulnerability and resilience must also be measured against a spectrum of non-warlike threats and risks that range from the man-made and deliberate (terrorism, crime, cyber-attack) to the purely natural (disasters, pandemics). Economic, financial and social shortcomings form part of this spectrum in their own right, but can also compound states' problems in tackling the other hazards. Further, developed states are expected - and often pressed by the groupings they belong to - to join in all kinds of interventions to help the less fortunate. All this creates unprecedented challenges for national security governance, in every phase: threat and risk assessment, strategy development, acquisition of tools (including internal and external partnerships), and the design of bureaucratic systems for peace-time implementation and crisis handling. What concepts and assessment methods can help to illuminate the specifics of small states' plight across this whole canvas? What policy models and practical solutions are open to them? What may help or hinder their successful management of modern societal security 'in the round'? This panel will focus especially on non-military (or ’non-traditional’) challenges and on new concepts in security discourse, including the ‘securitization’ debate. It welcomes contributions on the broad picture, on specific security dimensions, and on policy studies of one or several small states in various regions.

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