ABSTRACT
A decade or so into the twenty-first century, it became clear that some of the more outlandish predictions about globalization have failed to materialize. Not so long ago, the favourite subject among academics and journalists alike was the end of everything: the end of the state, the ‘end of geography’ (as one popular book boldly claimed), even the end of history, no less. Today’s talk is about the rise of new powers: China, India, Brazil, and possibly Russia (the BRIC) countries. Yet globalization includes another puzzle: while the very large states appear to be faring well, perhaps even more intriguing is how this also appears to be the case for the very small states, the micropolities, that are by and large anachronistic survivals of time passed by.
