Small, but very important countries

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

We instinctively tend to think about smaller countries as largely insignificant, but there are some certain small countries that attained a great importance in international affairs. And by small here I mean countries with less than 10 million inhabitants.

Israel, Switzerland, Singapore or Luxembourg (the latter especially on the European stage) comes to mind. 

[dead0man]

Austria, Hungary, Norway, Palestine,

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Austria, Hungary, Norway, Palestine,

Palestine is surely important, but it's because of repercussions of the Palestinian problem, not because Palestine has any real power. Yeah, there are diffrent kinds of "importance".

Austria definitively used to be very significant in Swiss way (active neutrality, especially as embodied by Kreisky, a bridge between west and east), but I don't think we can call them truly neutral anymore, due to the UE membership. Pretty much why I don't consider Sweden or Finland neutral by old definitions.

Speaking of which, before Poland decided to seriously purse membership in NATO and EU, there were two interesting ideas. First, becoming such a bridge between west and east. Second, forming "little NATO" and "little EEC" with countries of the region. I don't think either would work, though, but some ideas die hard, workable ot not.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Panama, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and quasi-nations like Hong Kong.

[parochial boy]

Scotland, if it can count - as one of the driving forces behind the industrial revolution

The Vatican

Serbia and Bosnia

[EPG]

The Holy See is surely #1, that guy could probably get a meeting with anyone he wanted, and he must have more worldwide recognition than May or Macron.

[Sirius_]

Djibouti. Almost all goods going to and from Ethiopia must go through Djibouti and it's home to several military bases of larger countries due to its relative stability in a geopolitical hotspot.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Brunei

[Tender Branson]

Austria, while small, will have a very important role in the 2nd half of 2018: the EU presidency.

Which will also co-incide with the final and most important Brexit talks + debates about the future EU budget without the UK.

Like Kalwejt said, Kurz (who already set a few high-level EU summits for these 6 months) and Austria will serve as a bridge-builder between the EU and the UK and the Western and Eastern member states.

[Tintrlvr]

Panama and the Cayman Islands (not even a full-fledged country!) come to mind.

[Dr. MB]

UAE and Qatar.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Grand Fenwick