Secondary Powers amidst Great Power Competition: Structure and Agency, Constraints and Opportunities

The return of great power competition is unsettling the hierarchy that has organized international politics since the end of the Cold War. As the distribution of power shifts and rivalry spreads across regional theatres, systemic constraints bear with renewed intensity on secondary powers. Ranking below the contenders for primacy, these states range from the more capable, frequently labelled middle powers, to the weaker, usually studied as small powers.
Yet instability can generate opportunities, at least for some states and for a time. Rivals bid for the allegiance, or mere equidistance, of well-placed countries. Geographic position, strategic assets and alliance contributions can be converted into protection, bargaining power, status and material gains, and asymmetric relationships can be renegotiated from below.
However, for most of these states, intensifying competition means tightening constraints. Pressures to take sides multiply, and patrons demand larger contributions in costs, risks and commitments. The space for neutrality, non-alignment and hedging narrows as dividing lines harden, while exposed allies fear entrapment and abandonment alike, squeezed by rivalling powers at once.
The panel addresses this double-sided condition and asks when, for which states and at what price constraints actually turn into opportunities. It invites papers on the alignment choices of secondary powers, from bandwagoning and balancing to hedging and neutrality in their many variants, as well as on intra-alliance bargaining over burden sharing, voice and autonomy. Contributions may also explore regional strategies and status seeking, the domestic politics that mediates systemic pressures, and the capability differentials that separate the options of stronger and weaker secondary powers.
The panel is open to both theoretical and applied contributions, drawing on varied frameworks as well as on analytically eclectic or empirically driven approaches, and employing qualitative, quantitative or multiple/mixed methods. Studies of secondary powers amidst contemporary or past great power competition are equally encouraged, as are single case studies and comparative designs. In foregrounding multiple regional perspectives, the panel proceeds from the recognition that understanding how systemic instability reshapes the choices of secondary states requires a plurality of conceptual, empirical and methodological lenses.