ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the security dilemmas confronted by small states in the context of post-Cold War Europe. It suggests that for the small states of Western Europe, the contemporary European setting may promise a form of escape from many of the security dilemmas that have historically plagued their foreign and defense policies. The Europe of the Cold War was divided by an ideological, political, and military barrier with the power of the Soviet Union posing the primary threat to the countries of Western Europe. Allying with a great power in a bilateral pact is the most recurrent historical manifestation of small state alliance behavior. The alliance option is thus far from problem free for small states. The new "uneven" environment is neither a balance of power system nor a collective security one; it is, rather, a "netherworld" between established system types.