Small States, History of
Small states have been the subject of historical enquiry since the writings of Herodotus and Thucydides. Intertwined with the history of empire, the survival or demise of small states has regularly inspired patriotic encomium or tragic lament. Small states threatened by large empires or ambitious neighbors developed numerous survival strategies including alliance, the balance of power, economic specialization, and reliance upon military manliness. All of these were failing by the mid-eighteenth century, leading to a crisis of the small states and the development of new strategies to maintain them in a world increasingly dominated by large commercial empires.
Small States in the European Union: Coping with Structural Disadvantages
Contents: Preface Introduction Small states in a big union: facing structural disadvantages Mapping small states' activities Theorising the usage of negotiation strategies Why some small states are more active than others Mapping negotiation success Theorising negotiation success Quantitative analysis: negotiation success Case studies: how small states can punch above their weights Conclusions Appendix Bibliography Index.
Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire
Edward Gibbon described Athanasius as a man "whose character and abilities would have qualified him, far more than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government of a great monarchy". During his long tenure of the see from 328 to 373, the Bishop of Alexandria came into conflict with four Roman emperors - Constantine himself, his son Constantius, Julian the Apostate, and the "Arian" Valens. In this reconstruction of Athanasius's career, Timothy Barnes analyzes the nature and extent of the Bishop's power, especially as it intersected with the policies of these emperors. The life and writings of this combative figure - so central to the political struggles, theological controversies, and ecclesiastic developments of the fourth century - constitute an important chapter in the history of the early Christian church and the late Roman Empire. Barnes focuses on Athansius's long struggle with Constantius, who ruled the East from 337 to 361, a struggle amply documented in the works that Athanasius composed to defend himself against charges of treason and murder. Repeatedly condemned and deposed by church councils, the Bishop persistently resurfaced as a player to contend with in ecclesiastic and imperial politics. Barnes's work reveals that Athanasius's writings, though a significant source for this period, are riddled with deliberate misrepresentations, which historians through the ages have uncritically accepted. Untangling longstanding misconceptions, Barnes aims to reveal the Bishop's true role in the struggles within Christianity, and in the relations between the emperor and the church at a critical juncture. As this book strives to demonstrate, religious policy and ecclesiastic politics were a constant and central concern to the emperors of the fourth century - despite their absence from many historical accounts.