Middle Power Diplomacy in International Relations

Abstract

The middle power concept has historically been developed as a framework for understanding the foreign policy of certain Western states, and especially Australia, Canada and the Nordic middle powers. Middle power diplomacy has been pursued extensively by industrialised states that have historically been able to “punch above their weight” through the deployment of an advanced diplomatic machinery in terms of knowledge, resources and expertise. The idea of “middlepowermanship” was developed as a foreign policy platform that could justify a special role for these states in international affairs, and it was often modified accordingly to accommodate the foreign policy needs of Western states (Ping, 2005, pp. 3–8). This functional treatment of the middle power concept often led to the misperception that only a limited number of Western states can act as middle powers.