Acting in the Shadow of German Hegemony? The Role of Small States in the Economic and Monetary Union (Introduction to the Special Issue)

ABSTRACT This article introduces the special issue on smaller states and their relation to Germany in the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). While there has been a mushrooming literature on the role of Germany in EMU, there has been hardly any research on how smaller states interact with EMU’s most powerful member. However, recent developments such as the rise of populism, Brexit, or the emergence of small state coalitions such as the ‘New Hanseatic League’ and the ‘Frugal Four’ give reason to take a closer look at the role of smaller states. Therefore, this special issue gathers the preferences of smaller EMU members, analyses the strategies they use to pursue them vis-à-vis Germany, and investigates the reasons for their choice as well as Germany’s reaction. At a theoretical level, we put forward an analytical framework providing causal propositions on why and how smaller states adopt certain strategies when they act in the shadow of hegemony. At an empirical level, we present the findings of the single contributions. We conclude by discussing the results in the light of our theoretical expectations.