Shrinking room for hedging: system-unit dynamics and behavior of smaller powers
Journal: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific
Year: 2019

Abstract This article advances the understanding of ‘hedging’ in international politics by highlighting and examining the limits to smaller powers’ hedging behavior. Building on the line of reasoning that hedging is an outcome of regional or state-level, rather than system-level, variables, the article suggests that the room for hedging available to smaller states shrinks as great powers become more competitive and attempt to balance against one another. With an empirical focus on the post-Cold