As co-editors of the Handbook on the politics of small states, we reflect briefly
on the insightful arguments of Kerryn Baker, Winston Dookeran and Marlene Jugl, which are, in their turn, inspired by a critical reading of our book. We revisit our working and pragmatic definition of small states, repropose justifications for their study, and tentatively explore the relatively underutilised merits of a comparative methodology. These considerations help to once again address (1) why we should study the politics of small states, (2) how to study it, and (3) what do we actually focus on when we study small state politics.