ABSTRACT
The definition of a small state, the kind of state whose very existence and viability were called in question in the aftermath of the Second World War, is now being considered afresh. At that time only the super powers, the colossi of the world, counted ; for their possession of atomic weapons was going to give them the power of life and death over all the other nations of the world. We were living, or so we were assured, and would go on living for a long time, in a bipolar international system whose transformation could be brought about only through the formation of major economic blocs. The trend at that time - as now - favoured the concentration of means and of power. As they became industrialized, the political societies of the world were expected in the natural course of events to bring down their frontiers and thereby destroy the nation-state.
