Towards a Middle Power Theory in International Relations

Abstract

Middle powers have been significantly less studied in IR than great powers and their international behaviours. In fact, the concentration of mainstream literature on great powers in the field of security has led to a great neglect of the role other states play in international relations; non-great powers have been mostly considered to be part of ‘the rest’. The major reason for this academic and public conduct is most probably the vast qualitative inequality among states, something that—despite legal admission about equality in many important texts of international law—reflects on international politics upon till today. In this context Robert W. Tucker noted that