The Success of Small Countries or What’s Wrong With Being XXL in the World Economy?

... and this is where a lot of the problems reside these days. Indeed, the bulk of trade restrictions are either emanating from the world’s largest economies or are directed against the leading powers on the international trade arena. According to the Global Trade Alert (GTA), in the past ten years the largest amount of trade restrictions was directed against China, while the initiations in trade disputes and restrictions were led by the developed economies such as the US and the EU. Large economies also tend to have significantly more allocations towards defence compared to small economies. Hard power tends to take on significant prominence compared to “soft power” with increasing country size. This in turn comes at an economic ...