Small states and the threat of victimisation: Finland and the Ukraine conflicts 2014 and 2022
Journal: Cooperation and Conflict
Year: 2025

When observing interstate aggression, vulnerable small states’ threat perceptions differ from those of great powers and other relatively secure states. Vulnerable small states experience a threat of victimisation, asking themselves whether they might suffer the fate of the victim. Contrary to previous International Relations (IR) conceptualisations of threat, the victimisation logic puts the aggression rather than the aggressor at the centre. Understood this way, small states’ threat perceptions