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Small States in the Global Economy: Comparative Perspectives
ECPR conference in Reykjavik 25th-27th August 2011
The section focuses on the status of small states after the 2008 credit crunch. The aim is to examine small states’ exposure to international events (economic crisis and political pressure) and whether they can adopt certain means in order to cope better with external forces. Also, the aim is to critically evaluate the recent small state literature in order to study whether it has overestimated small states’ domestic and external capabilities to withstand external stress. This is a comparative section on small states in the international system. Hence, it will focus on micro states vs. small states and small states vs. large states. Moreover, the spotlight will be on security concerns in small states vs. their economic concerns, welfare states vs. neo-liberal states, European states vs. third world states etc. The main objective is to answer the following questions: Why were many small states badly affected by the 2008 credit crunch such as Iceland, Latvia and Greece? Has the recent small state literature underestimated small states’ economic and political vulnerability so commonly claimed by IR theories in the past? Are small states bound to be weak economically and politically? Are small states today more exposed to the fortunes of the international economy duo its neo-liberal characteristics (particularly including free flow of capital) than in the past? How can small states cope with international economic and political challenges?
A call for papers for the panels will be circulated at the beginning of November 2011, with a deadline of 1 February 2011.
Section Chair Baldur Thorhallsson, University of Iceland
Section Co-Chair Anders Wivel, University of Copenhagen
Section Co-Chair Rainer Kattel, Tallinn University of Technology
PANELS
Katzenstein's Small States in World Markets After 25 Years
New Security Challenges of Small States
The Small States' Literature: Are small states' capabilities overestimated?
The Politics and Political Economy of European Tiny States
Innovation in Small States
Classifications of small states in crisis and international interventions
Small States in the European Union: Lessons from the Nordic Countries
