When Lilliputians Matter for the Colossus: Exploring the Role of Austria, Croatia, and Serbia In European Security Cooperation, 1999ꟷ2018

The foreign policies of Austria, Croatia, and Serbia (1999-2018) toward the European security structure are often considered as secondary: small states appear as beneficiaries and norm-takers dependent on alliances and international order constructed by great powers. We challenge this opinion by analyzing the roles of small states in maintaining or contesting the post-Cold War international order in Europe, and argue that small states are the crucial “validators” of order through their agency. This indirect symbolic agency explains the discrepancy between their material capabilities and their real importance for powerful structures such as NATO and the EU. Our method rests on hegemony-centric research, which suggests that the power of hegemons and international organizations consists not only of material component, but also of symbolic meta-capital. Hegemons and international organizations legitimize themselves by deploying symbolic prestige toward small states to legitimate their position in the international hierarchy, and small states can accept or try to contest those norms in the process of international socialization. We advance this discussion about hierarchies and hegemonic order in IR by arguing that small states are, in relational terms, the co-constituent of this meta-capital’s worth. Small states can exercise “chameleonic” agency by taking part in normative socialization within the Western-based conception of order, despite episodes of non-alignment, war, and marginalization. We illustrate this on the three cases: Austria’s cooperation with NATO, Croatia’s integration in the EU and membership negotiations between the EU and Serbia, which illustrate the (in)ability of the Euro-Atlantic narrative about the post-Cold war order.