MILITARY STRATEGIES OF SMALL COUNTRY AND GEOPOLITICAL CHANGE

Abstract

The current global order is in the process of building new relations. The beginning of the 21 st century and the seemingly stable liberal order were brought into question with several unexpected events which created great insecurity and pressure on small countries so as to adapt their defense strategies to the changing security environment. Analyzing the issue of small country military strategies, the authors of the paper begin with theoretical considerations of the concepts of small country and military strategy with a brief overview of the history of the subject terms. Given the fact that there is no commonly accepted definition of small countries and that these are most often presented through certain quantitative elements, the authors consider small countries from the perspective of their ability to address key security and defense issues. On the other hand, it is evident that small countries are exposed to a range of security challenges and impacts which determine, among other things, the content of their military strategies. In order to gain greater security and stability, as well as greater influence, and meet their economic or political needs, small countries determine their military strategies in order to increase their chances of survival. In addition, the paper analyzes geopolitical changes based on neorealistic principles focused on small countries, which recommend that countries adapt their strategies quickly to changes in the external environment. However, every country has different historical experience of conflicts and wars, as well as unique geographical features in terms of expansion and relative closeness to friendly or threatening major powers. Different experience also results in different military strategies, as well as participation in any military and political alliances. As an analytic framework, the authors link elements of neorealism (conceptualization of the international system) with subsequent neoclassicist and realistic studies of the politics of alliances, characteristics of