It’s not the size, it’s the relationship: from ‘small states’ to asymmetry

Debate about the definition of “small state” has produced more fragmentation than consensus, even as the literature has demonstrated its subjects’ roles in joining international organizations propagating norms, executing creative diplomacy, influencing allies, avoiding and joining conflicts, and building peace. However, work on small states has struggled to identify commonalities in these states’ international relations, to cumulate knowledge, or to impact broader IR theory. This paper advocates a changed conceptual and definitional framework. Analysis of “small states” should pivot to examine the dynamics of the asymmetrical relationships in which these states are engaged. Instead of seeking an overall metric for size as the relevant variable—falling victim in a different way Dahl’s “lump-of-power fallacy,” we can recognize the multifaceted, variegated nature of power, whether in war or peacetime

Security Policies of India, Brazil and South Africa – Regional Security Contexts as Constraints for a Common Agenda

In the course of the last decade, the IBSA states (India, Brazil, South Africa) have increased their weight in the shifting global order, particularly in economic affairs. Can the same be said about the IBSA states' position in the international security hierarchy? After locating the IBSA coalition in the shifting world order, we analyze its member states' willingness and capacity to coordinate their security policies and build a common global security agenda. In addition, we explore the state of and perspectives on bi- and trilateral collaboration initiatives on defense and armaments between India, Brazil and South Africa. A key reason for the mostly modest results of global security agenda coordination and cross-regional defense collaboration is that the prevailing security concerns of each country are located at the regional level. Therefore, the starting point of an assessment of the prospects of IBSA's security cooperation and its potential impact on the strategic global landscape has to be a comparative evaluation of the regional security environments, focusing on overlaps and potential synergies between the national security policies of the three state actors.Im Verlauf der letzten Dekade konnten die IBSA-Staaten (Indien, Brasilien, Südafrika) ihre Position in der sich verschiebenden Weltordnung erheblich verbessern; das gilt insbesondere für ihren Einfluss auf globale Handelsfragen. Lässt sich ein ähnlicher Aufstieg der IBSA-Staaten in der internationalen Sicherheitsordnung konstatieren? Die Autoren verorten die IBSA-Koalition in der sich verschiebenden Weltordnung und analysieren die Bereitschaft und Fähigkeit der drei Staaten, ihre Sicherheitsstrategien zu koordinieren und eine gemeinsame Sicherheitsagenda zu entwerfen. Ferner werden die Bedingungen und Perspektiven biund trilateraler Verteidigungs- und Rüstungszusammenarbeit untersucht. Im Ergebnis zeichnen sich bisher allenfalls anfängliche Bemühungen bei der Zusammenarbeit im Verteidigungssektor und bei der Entwicklung einer globalen Sicherheitsagenda ab. Ausschlaggebend dafür sind die primär auf der regionalen Ebene liegenden Sicherheitsprioritäten der IBSA-Staaten. Die perspektivische Bewertung des potenziellen Einflusses der Staatenkoalition auf globale Sicherheitsfragen erfolgt demnach vor dem Hintergrund der regionalen Sicherheitsstrategien Indiens, Brasiliens und Südafrikas. Dabei stehen mögliche Überschneidungen und Synergien zwischen den regionalen Sicherheitsstrategien im Zentrum des Interesses

Overlapping regional security institutions in South America: The case of OAS and UNASUR

The Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has positioned itself as a regional security organization aimed at reducing the influence of the Organization of American States (OAS) in South America. At the same time, the OAS paradoxically serves as a model for UNASUR because of its operational capacity and its legitimacy as a regional organization. This article analyzes the seemingly contradictory tendencies of replication and dissociation that UNASUR exhibits towards the OAS in terms of security conceptions and practices. In the first part of the paper, we will draw on recent debates on international regime complexity to develop a framework to study institutional overlap. The second part analyzes to what extent and in which respects UNASUR, and particularly its Defense Council, overlaps with the OAS in terms of security conceptions and practices, while the third part examines the causes of the emergence of a “competitor” for the OAS in South America

The coexistence of peace and conflict in South America: toward a new conceptualization of types of peace

South America's predominant democratic regimes and its increasing interdependence on regional trade have not precluded the emergence of militarized crises between Colombia and Venezuela or the revival of boundary claims between Chile and Peru. This way, how can we characterize a zone that, in spite of its flourishing democracy and dense economic ties, remain involved in territorial disputes for whose resolution the use of force has not yet been discarded? This article contends that existing classifications of zones of peace are not adequate to explain this unusual coexistence. Thus, its main purpose is to develop a new analytical category of regional peace for assessing this phenomenon: the hybrid peace. It aims to research the evolution of security systems in South America during the previous century and build a new, threefold classification of peace zones: negative peace zones, hybrid peace zones, and positive peace zones

UNASUR, Brazil, and the South American defence cooperation: A decade later

Abstract UNASUR and its Defence Council (SADC) were created under a promising scenario of regional cooperation. Almost ten years later, a growing demand for regional cooperation arises, facing, however, low levels of political willingness from local governments. Through the lenses of structural and neoclassical realism, this paper suggests that the lack of support by governments, especially the Brazilian one, due to a change in how domestic ideas are developed, and a transformation in the regional balance of power, have contributed to these institutions’ quick obsolescence