Critics Review:
The Soft Power of Non-Western Small States made it to the top 10 International Affairs summer reading list 2025:
'If Mahbubani provides practical experience of small states’ diplomacy, Sarina Theys turns to Bhutan and Qatar to challenge conventional notions of power and size. While Theys is not the first to recognize the influence of small states in global politics, her latest book offers an intersubjective understanding of smallness and identity. In other words, Theys takes into consideration Bhutan’s and Qatar’s efforts regarding identity projection, mapping out their multiple identities before observing how these efforts translate (or fail to translate) into soft power influence. Overall, this is an empirically rigorous and conceptually innovative book that pushes the boundaries of western-centric literature. Check out our review for additional insights on the rather serendipitous case-study selection.'
"This important book on the soft power of Bhutan and Qatar deserves a wide readership among students of small state diplomacy" - Professor Anders Wivel, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
"While the book offers a unique and important exploration of the domestic and foreign policy goals and strategies of two under-researched states, it is the theoretical innovations that will remain with the readers. Instead of reinventing the wheel, Theys has plotted a considered and cautious path between the old and new, offering a carefully revised understanding of both how to define smallness and how to understand and analyse soft power that these states exercise. Scholars of small states politics and asymmetrically driven normative and foreign policy change should make sure this book is on their reading lists" - Dr Liam Moore, James Cook University, Australia. Reviewed in International Affairs.
"The book’s main contribution lies in its innovative methodological approach, offering much-needed tools to explore how these states project soft power despite limited material capabilities and adverse physio-geographic and geopolitical constraints. Theys’ work provides a major service to the literature, offering a valuable dual contribution: on the one hand, it addresses the longstanding definitional dilemma that has permeated the small-state debate for over seven decades by asserting that the meaning of “small” is not fixed but a socially constructed and dynamic phenomenon. On the other hand, by expanding our understanding of how smallness is perceived, utilised, and received within non-Western paradigms, Theys elevates the discourse on soft power by framing it as an outcome-oriented exercise, rooted in cultural, perceptual, and receptive dimensions, often in contrast to traditional, West-centric interpretations of soft power..."
"The book’s key strength, however, is its critical engagement with Nye’s concept of ‘soft power’ and its deep reconceptualisation. Building around a core argument that the soft power parameters can be grounded on non-materialistic reflections and identity-informed and perception-based political manifestations of it, the book lays a solid conceptual foundation by effectively reconciling Nye’s at times vague and unstable concept with Wendt’s thoughtful constructivist model of state identity. This theoretical synthesis allows the author to detect and assess the exercise of soft power in the empirical cases of Bhutan and Qatar. Moreover, as part of the broader scholarly effort to de-Westernise soft power theory, Theys refines the concept by shifting Nye’s agent-focused projection toward an audience-centric model of reception. In doing so, she enriches the soft power concept with a pertinent theoretical framework that opens up new, promising horizons for research as its interpretation of soft power is now tied to state identities, beliefs, perceptions, and persuasive narratives directed at both domestic and international audiences. Guided by this contextualised intellectual apparatus, Theys advances a novel definition of soft power..." - Dr Eduard Abrahamyan, University College London, United Kingdom. Reviewed in Small States & Territories.