Apart from biggish powers like Russia, the war on piracy is attracting small countries.
Coalitions of small countries will no longer be able to stymie the big ones.
Small countries which went into businesses that grew in globalisation's wake, like tourism, are also suffering.
Trading far and wide, the small countries will have less reason to fear their giant neighbour.
The voting power of small countries, though still disproportionately large, has been diluted a little.
Arguments loom over reducing the extra voting weight given to small countries, for a start.
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EU, which began with three big and three small countries, now has six big and 19 small.
Could it be, some wonder, that small countries, like small companies, can grow faster than big ones?
And even small countries could hold out for a better deal in sectors that matter to them.
Small countries can go on capturing shares in big world markets until their income per head catches up.
The commission, several small countries and the European Central Bank all railed at this flouting of the rules.
The Council of Ministers uses a system of weighted qualified-majority voting in which small countries are heavily over-represented.
It is, he says, like EU referendums in Denmark and Ireland, when politicians from small countries wielded immense influence.
Like other small countries, Georgia is used to seeing its fate decided elsewhere.
Nor are small countries, such as Namibia, likely to develop the top-level skills needed for the very highest-quality stones.
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Small countries such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Senegal have seen half to three-quarters of all their graduates move abroad.
"Our strength is performing in Italian and has more potential than other small countries like Malta and Andorra, " he adds.
Universal military duty still makes sense for small countries like Israel that may need to fight all out for national survival.
The present system, whereby big countries send two commissioners to Brussels and small countries one, means an over-generous 20 commissioners already.
And Saudi Arabia and several small countries nearby also have the cash to qualify, but are not quite welcome in the West.
Small countries that may not be viable in a world of trade restrictions can prosper when trade is liberal and markets are open.
The European Parliament, in which voters from small countries such as Malta have far more weight than Germans, is not up to the job.
For many small countries they accounted for a large chunk of GDP in 2007, for example in Tajikistan (46%), Moldova (38%) and Lebanon (24%).
By contrast, Malta and Luxembourg, two small countries that were the subject of unwelcome comparisons with Cyprus thanks to their outsize financial sectors, fared better.
Robert Zoellick, the United States' Trade Representative, this week met his counterparts from the Caribbean, who are worried about their small countries' ability to compete.
Some small countries, like Iraq, don't have functioning treasury-bond markets but have sold foreign-currency bonds internationally, giving fund managers another avenue to invest in them.
But a bitter debate could soon break out again: small countries, as the Amsterdam summit showed, are deeply reluctant to lose council votes or commissioners.
But it is a potentially damaging burden for some small countries.
America has also encouraged small countries with large shipping registries such as Liberia, Panama, the Marshall Islands and the Bahamas to mandate prudent self-protection by vessels.
Conservatism has other rewards, too: being a big, safe-sounding bank in small countries has allowed it to pay uncompetitive interest rates and still keep pulling in deposits.
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