Projects / Programmes
Majhne države v procesih preoblikovanja mednarodne skupnosti (Slovene)
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.06.02 |
Social sciences |
Political science |
International relations |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S170 |
Social sciences |
Political and administrative sciences |
| S186 |
Social sciences |
International commerce |
Small countries, globalization, integration, European union, foreign policy, sovereignty, FDI, Euro, voting, transition, technology, services, theories, media, interdisciplinarity
Researchers (17)
Organisations (1)
Abstract
Globalization and other tectonic changes in the world are fundamentally changing the position of small countries. Some scholars think that this position is strengthening, others that it is weakening. Since after fall of the Berlin wall many new small countries have emerged and it is expected that such a process will continue in the future. However, even disintegration (and, as a result, the emergence of new smaller states) should not be ruled out. It is therefore crucial to asses what are the implications of these changes on the position of small countries. This is the major objective of this project. Stage results demonstrate that globalization generally strengthen the position of small countries provided they choose right policies and provided we have right regional and multilateral regulatory framework which minimise negative consequences of globalization. One of major concerns of small countries is loosing of sovereignty. However, study demonstrates that countries really share sovereignty, that such “loosing” is compensated by gaining sovereignty by alliances or/and entering in regional integration groupings. Project team had in such a general framework selected the following research priorities in 1998. First searching for the general theory of small countries. It has been however demonstrated that such a theory is not possible in view of high heterogeneity of small countries. Special emphasis was given to theories of intentional relations, foreign policy, custom union and integration in general (including theory of small monetary area) and international production. Second priority was the position of Slovenia as a small country in transition in the world. The third priority was enlargement of EU and the position of small countries including the reform of voting in the Council of ministers. The fourth priority was implications of globalization on the position of small countries. Among the individual analysis the following should be mentioned in particular: globalization and competitiveness of small countries (Slovenia), EMU and introduction of Euro on the position of a small country (including Slovenia), enlargement of EU and institutional reform of EU, outward internationalization of firms (particularly small and medium size ones) and competitiveness of small countries, technological transformation and development leap-frogging, accession of Slovenia to EU (including the evaluation of the role of media for instance).
