ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on most definitions of grand strategy and most definitions of military strategy. It introduces the general research design of this study together with definition of small states. The book presents a brief account of the defence strategy that each country pursued immediately before the first shock, the terrorist attacks 9/11 2001. It analyses the four countries' different responses to the first two strategic shocks. The book compares the responses of the four different countries to the shock. The requests raised questions related to cooperative security, western solidarity and small states' ability to contribute to multinational military operations against primarily non-state actors. To find potentially relevant causes for continuity and differences in the four countries' strategic responses people have turned to the analytical tool box of classical and neoclassical realism and research on strategy.
