ABSTRACT
With emphasis on East Asian and North American examples – notably Japan and Quebec – Date, Laniel and their contributors take a new approach to the understanding of small nations and their role in the international system.
Small nations, by their very nature, raise significant questions about what a nation is. Some small nations are sovereign states with relatively small populations and limited territory, others are nations within larger sovereign states, with distinctive cultures, governance structures or other features that differentiate them from their “parent” state. By focussing on non-European nations in particular, the contributors to this volume challenge our conceptions of what a small nation is and how it operates within the international system. They focus in particular on the nation-within-a-nation-state of Quebec and on Japan, supplemented by further examples from East Asia. By interrogating what these examples have to show us about the typology and character of small nations, they offer a critique of superpower and draw out the potential of small nation studies.
A valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations and theories of the nation and nation state.
The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|75 pages
Quebec society through the lens of the small nation
chapter 2|23 pages
The return from Europe and the return from America as heuristic figures of the small nation in Quebec
chapter 3|17 pages
The value of an intercultural citizenship regime for small nations
chapter 4|18 pages
Between vulnerability and adaptability
part II|86 pages
Re-examining Japan from a small-nation perspective
chapter 5|20 pages
Japan, a small nation feigning to be something greater
part III|102 pages
Diversity