Small States and Big Powers Portugal and Iceland’s Foreign Relations

Foreign policy is one of the most complex policies of every state, and Portugal and Iceland are no exception. The “Small States and Big Powers: Portugal and Iceland’s Foreign Relations” book analyses the importance of relations with big powers or regional and international organisations from a shelter theory perspective, detailing the degree of political, economic and societal shelter that they have provided to Portugal and to Iceland over time.

Despite having followed distinct paths, Portugal and Iceland have some important similarities in their foreign policy, namely in relation to the European and the Atlantic dimensions and their participation in regional organisations. The book examines their decisions to join or not to join regional organisations, and both countries’ bilateral relations with other important parts of the world, namely Africa, the Nordic states and China.

This book compares the foreign policies of Portugal and Iceland considering their commonly identified status as small states and place them within the shelter theory framework, and its findings indicate that both countries need to balance their international relations with shelter provided by different actors. Their size and political and economic capabilities matter in their bilateral and multilateral relations. It is therefore in both countries’ interest to maintain strong cooperation not only with big powers, but also regional and international organisations, depending on their field of action, in order to flourish politically, economically and socially.

Dr. Alice Cunha is Assistant Professor with Habilitation in International Relations at the NOVA University of Lisbon – School of Social Sciences and Humanities (NOVA FCSH), and Researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI), where she has worked on European Integration, an area in which she has published extensively. Her main research interests are related to enlargement studies, Europeanization, European funds and Portuguese foreign policy. She is a member of the European Union Liaison Committee of Historians. ORCID: 0000-0003-3206-8475.

Baldur Thorhallsson is Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Political Science and Programme and Research Director at the Centre for Small States at the University of Iceland. His research focus is primarily on small state studies, European integration and the Nordic states’ foreign policies. He has published extensively in international journals, contributed to several academic books and written books on small states in Europe. In 2002, Baldur established a Centre for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland in association with colleagues around the globe and re-established the Icelandic Institute of International Affairs. Baldur has been a visiting fellow and taught on small states at several Universities, such as the Queen Mary University of London, the Military Academy of Lithuania, Williams College (MA, USA), Tallinn University of Technology and Paris-Sorbonne University – Paris 4. Baldur is currently leading two research projects on small states, i.e. small states and European integration (funded by the EU), and small states and crisis management (funded by the University of Iceland). He holds a PhD (1999) and MA (1994) in Political Science from the University of Essex in England and BA (1991) in Political Science from the University of Iceland.