On the 19th of October, 2021, the Institute for Foreign Affairs and Trade – in cooperation with Routledge Publishing – hosted an online book launch of the work of Máté Szalai entitled “The Foreign Policy of Smaller Gulf States: Size, Power, and Regime Stability in the Middle East”. Besides the author, two scholars shared their views on the volume: Luciano Zaccara (Assistant Professor of the Gulf Studies Center at Qatar University) and László Csicsmann (Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest). The discussion was moderated by Nikolett Garai, a researcher of the Institute.
In the first part of the event, Máté Szalai shed light on the 7-year long research process behind the book. During his research, he wanted to identify the various types of state size and their effect on foreign policy. His conclusions led to the establishment of the complex model of size, a framework which is based on four ideas – the differentiation of four kinds of size, emphasizing the regional systemic dimension in the analysis of small states, focusing on the ways in which smallness interacts with other variables, and moving past the simplified notion that smallness can only be a disadvantage in foreign policy. The complex model of size is used in the book to investigate the foreign policy behaviour of the five smaller Gulf states, namely Bahrein, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. The analysis includes several case studies, e.g., the reactions of smaller Gulf states’ to the Iranian revolution, the Arab Uprisings, or their attitude towards the Israeli-Palestinian question.
In the second part of the roundtable discussion, the participants discussed the various aspects of the book. Luciano Zaccara emphasized the importance of the endeavour to update and use theories in interpreting international relations in the Middle East and North Africa. László Csicsmann contemplated on applying the complex model of size on different case studies, for example Jordan. Answering the questions of the audience and the moderator, the participants also shared their views on the role played by smaller Gulf states in the developments in Afghanistan as well as the recent Qatari elections.
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