The search for security guarantees by small states, which have to overcome the limitations of scarce resources and small size of territory, leads to solutions which, in some cases more than others, may affect the independence of the state. Practice shows that in the strategic choices of small states, the complex balance between protection and independence finds a different gradation, at the ends ofwhich it is possible to place the “NATO model”, guarantor of a certain balance, and the “Pacific model”, based on highly unbalanced bilateral relations. The changed international context – characterized by instability, new threats and the emergence of new domains – may challenge the strategies of small states and, at the same time, it leads to a reflection on their future role in the international security dynamics and on the possibility that, in addition to being “consumers” of security, they may also become, to some extent, “contributors” of security, with positive effects on theirindependence.