Middle Powers in Asia and Europe in the 21st Century

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Description

This volume presents three claims regarding the role of middle powers in the 21st Century: first, states aspiring to become or remain middle powers choose from three possible role: to be a global middle powers; to be a regional pivot; or to be a niche leader. Second, states seeking such roles need different mixes of hard and soft power sources. Third, more so than great or small powers, middle powers walk a thin line between the domestic and systemic pressures they face. In this volume, these claims are based on (comparative) case studies of Germany, Iran, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Sweden, and Turkey.

Reviews

Pioneers in the revival of the concept of Middle Power, Giacomello and Verbeek offer a valuable and wide-ranging collection of country case studies. Theoretically eclectic and empirically rich, the individual chapters cover states in the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia, introducing concepts such as niche power and regional pivot, and exploring issue areas from naval power and energy security to banking, environmental policy, humanitarian aid, and military intervention. Given the authors claim that the number of Middle Powers has grown even in the last decade, this volume should be of interest to scholars of comparative foreign policy and international politics. -- Matthew Evangelista, Cornell University

Author Bio

Giampiero Giacomello is associate professor of international relations at the University of Bologna.



Bertjan Verbeek is chair and professor of international relations at Radboud University.