%0 Journal Article
%T Neorealism and International Subsystems of Small States: Insights from Sub-Saharan African CountriesĄŻ Interactions
%A Mughanda Muhindo
%A Gaetano Calenzo
%J Interdisciplinary Political Studies
%D 2011
%I 
%X The prevailing wisdom in IR debates finds that neorealism is Ą°the powerful toolĄ± predicting weak statesĄŻ behaviour. It has been argued that systemic factors are more likely to explain foreign policy choices of small states if compared to domestic factors. This paper is an exploration of the structural realist hypotheses about small statesĄŻ behaviour in the international system. It particularly questions the importance given by neorealism to structural explanations while analysing small statesĄŻ behaviour, despite paying little attention to the relativity of smallness. However, the neo-realist hypotheses would become more consistent if tested on smaller states of subsystems crowded by countries considered small in global comparisons. By focusing on smaller states of the Sub-Saharan-African sub-system, this paper argues that neorealist expectations find very little empirical support.
%U http://www.idps.unisi.it/file_download/24/IDPS_Vol1_issue2_a03_M.Muhindo_G.Calenzo.pdf