and bomber squadrons of the 20" Century. Small states use the international system to 
safeguard their territory and interests, they use alliances to bolster their positions when faced 
with larger threats and they use demilitarisation to eliminate the threat that armies pose to their 
own people. These concepts of sovereignty, alliance and demilitarisation are interlinked and 
underpinned by the international system. The current UN based system of sovereign states is 
the overarching framework within which sit alliances and regional security arrangements. These 
alliances and an ordered international system create an environment where a nation can 
demilitarise without risking conquest or collapse. It is the international system therefore which is 
both the greatest guarantor of security for small states and the greatest threat if that system is 
changed. 
Small states will always need to be agile and use the systems of larger states to their 
advantage. In this Liechtenstein offers a lesson to other small states. Of the over 300 states 
represented at the 1792 meeting of the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire, only 
Liechtenstein remains. Liechtenstein represents the pinnacle of what a small state can achieve. 
Through use of the international system, diplomacy and guile Liechtenstein navigated through 
Napoleon, Bismarck and Hitler to remain a sovereign, internationally recognised state, whose 
people have enjoyed 200 years of peace and prosperity in excess of their larger neighbours. It 
has done so without firing a shot and without a man or woman in military uniform since 1868'^?. 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Books 
1. Jan Angstrom and Isabelle Duyvesteyn (eds.), Modern war and the Utility of Force: 
Challenges, Methods and Strategy, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2010). 
2. David Beattie, Liechtenstein: A Modern History, (London: | B Taurus, 2004). 
  
142 Beattie, 30.