What particular challenges do "small states" have and what options might they employ to overcome them? Building out of a collaborative teaching class, Miller and Al-Marri (2022) wrote "Overcoming Smallness". The book offers a useful introduction to the literature on small states, with Chapter 1 on what small states are (and debates about that), Chapters 2 and 3 cover economics and natural resources in small states, Chapters 4 and 5 explore security and alliances, and Chapters 6 and 7 delve into a country case study of Qatar. The case study engages the literature of the opening chapters, bridging the theory to an applied case. Might have been useful to use the case to have an additional chapter on how the case can inform the theory in new ways or offer new directions in small state research. A few notes:
"Knowledge is also an important resource that has provided the wherewithal for some small states such as Finland, Estonia, Taiwan and Ireland to innovate and gain influence in industries such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, telecommunications and cyber security. This has required investment in high quality education, human capital development and the building of quality institutional frameworks. This underscores another point, that the intangible resources developed by small states can be used in the innovation of new tangible resources." (p. 69-70)
"From the perspective of small state security studies, the blockade of Qatar is an excellent example of a crisis in which a larger opponent with expansionist or revisinis goals uses hybrid warfare to target a smaller state to achieve its strategic objectives. From the outset, the intention of blockading countries was to destabilize Qatar and pressure decision makers in Doha to Accede there demands. The overt and concord methods adopted by the Saudi-UAE led anti-Qatar coalition in pursuit of their goals included disinformation, cyber-attacks, economic pressure and diplomatic isolation at a level that, in the words of NATO definition of hybrid warfare, remained "below the threshold of formally declared warfare." (p. 125)
"With the start of the crisis, Qatar was transformed overnight from a pro-active international actor into a besieged small state in a hostile regional environment with little choice but to defend its core interest from the much smaller coalition raged against it. Yet despite the notable power imbalance from the duration of the blockade Qatar managed to contain successfully its negative impact, and to maintain its political autonomy and economic sovereignty. As previous chapters have noted, states that can achieve economic and political self-reliance will be more difficult external opponents to divide and rule than ones that are economically dependent on other actors." (p.134)