Such states are vulnerable, and the past is littered with small and successful globalizers that lost out because of power politics: the Italian city states of the Renaissance, the Dutch Republic, or, in the twentieth century, Lebanon and Kuwait. Small states frequently became the victims of larger but poorer neighbors envious of their success and eager to seize their assets, while oblivious to the fact that such seizure actually destroys the source of wealth and dynamism.
这样的国家容易受到冲击，而历史上不乏成功的全球化小国由于权力政治而衰败。文艺复兴时期的意大利城市国家，荷兰共和国或者二十世纪的黎巴嫩以及科威特都是如此。贫穷大国邻国们嫉妒小国的成功，迫不及待地想要侵占它们的资产，而对这样的侵占实际上摧毁财富和动力的源泉这一事实视而不见。因而小国经常变成它们的受害者。