EDITORS' FOREWORD.

A memorable image emerged last November from COP26, the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland: that of a foreign minister standing knee-deep in the ocean, wearing a suit and tie, offering remarks. Tuvalu foreign minister Simon Kofe recorded the speech in this way to illustrate the very real threat rising sea levels pose to Tuvalu and other island states around the world.

Beyond the moral weight behind the statement, Tuvalu and other small island states in the Pacific can demonstrate authority and project power in other ways: each is in possession of an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that drastically increases its geographic footprint--contributing to a rebranding of certain small island states as "Large Ocean States." Moreover, on the global stage, small states have contributed greatly to a formidable bloc in the UN General Assembly, prioritizing their own needs and holding larger states--especially the Permanent 5 of the Security Council--to account. And small states are doing more than just providing moral and multilateral leadership: they are serving as laboratories for innovative governance models and early adopters of novel technologies.

Yet at a time when Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year and the continuing deterioration of U.S.-China relations have reinvigorated discussions around great-power politics, small states seemingly have little role to play, serving only as supporting cast members and bit players. While each state is sovereign within the international system of states, clearly economic clout and military capabilities are still central markers of power. Small states rarely have much of either.

So which is it: are small states agents of their own making or destined to, in the words of Thucydides, "suffer what they must"?

To strike the balance between recognizing small states' agential capabilities in international affairs and acknowledging larger states' coercive and sometimes distorting influences is difficult, but this issue seeks to do so.

Microstates and Small Island States in International Affairs presents diverse perspectives from and on small states, including in policy, law, governance, and journalism. Small states are at the forefront of the COVID-19 response, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and technological adoption. And while some small states have become unwilling arenas for larger states' balance-of-power moves, they retain both distinct foreign policy and the ability to manage...