UNDERSTANDING CRITERIA FOR DEFINING SMALL AND MIDDLE POWERS

Abstract

International Relations (IR) scholars generally categorize states into three groups of powers: small, middle, or great. The lack of clear criteria for determining the power status of states, however, often creates debate about how to appropriately categorize a particular country. This article focuses on gathering and organizing the major definitions of small and middle powers by various scholars. Moreover, the article places these definitions into different clear and usable categories. Therefore, we illustrate the appropriate range of the small and middle size power categories. This, in turn, will provide clearer guidelines for states that aim to move from one category to another.