Middle Powers in International Politics

Abstract

The book traces the history of the idea of middle-ranking powers through several centuries of European political writings, examines the position of such powers in the League ofNations and the United Nations, and defines the concept of middle powers in the con? temporary context. The major part of the bo k, however, is devoted to an exam? ination of the conduct and an analysis of the role of middle powers in several typical situations of the four principal forms of the states system: namely, the unifocal, the dualistic, the triangular and the multiple system. On the basis of historical material drawn mainly from the inter-American system of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the German and the European systems of the nineteenth century and the European and global systems of the twentieth century, various patterns are established and certain tendencies noted in the international conduct and role of such powers.