Small States these networks will develop more and more independent relations with par­ allel ones in other countries, and will increase their relative autonomy. While such developments may not only diminish the pressures on the central political organs of small states, it may also weaken the relatively strong central coordination between such network which was characteristic of the small states may become weaker. The central policy organs will become more centers of coordination and of information, and less of deci­ sion-making. Concomitantly, new, especially acute, problems may develop within the small states, also with respect to the construction and reproduction of the cultural identity of small states. The relative decharismatization of the cen­ ter, the weakening, not only of the organizational but also symbolic bound­ aries of the nation-state, the increasing importance of transnational langua­ ges, may weaken the overall civic or national identity, while at the same time more dispersed regional or "ethnic" identities may become reinforced. The relations between the more internally and externally oriented sectors in these states may also become attenuated. The preceding remarks are not, as we have mentioned above, more than preliminary indications for possible directions of research - but it seems to us they are worth pursuing. 117