With emphasis on East Asian and North American examples – notably Japan
and Quebec – Date, Laniel and their contributors take a new approach to the
understanding of small nations and their role in the international system.
Small nations, by their very nature, raise significant questions about what a nation
is. Some small nations are sovereign states with relatively small populations and
limited territory, others are nations within larger sovereign states, with distinctive
cultures, governance structures or other features that differentiate them from their
“parent” state. By focussing on non-European nations in particular, the contributors
to this volume challenge our conceptions of what a small nation is and how it

operates within the international system. They focus in particular on the nation-
within-a-nation-state of Quebec and on Japan, supplemented by further examples

from East Asia. By interrogating what these examples have to show us about the
typology and character of small nations, they offer a critique of superpower and
draw out the potential of small nation studies.
A valuable resource for students and scholars of international relations and
theories of the nation and nation state.