An Ontological Exploration of Small States’ Agency in an Illiberal International Order

In the article, it is argued that an Illiberal International Order does not eliminate the agency of small states and instead reconfigures it through asymmetrical material, institutional, ideational and historical international (social) relations. The author reconstructs the genealogy of small-state studies and views Long’s relational turn as a bridge from attribute-based definitions to conditioned agency, before extending that move via a (dialectical) critical realist framework. Foreign-policy and diplomatic practices mediate between asymmetrical international relations and internally constituted state capacities, reproducing or transforming the conditions of action. Small-state analysis should therefore ask how, under which conditions, and for whom security, influence, and transformation are produced.