Malta as leverage against rival powers

Malta is small and lacks the population or mineral wealth that usually attracts conquest. Its value comes from the operations it enables against somewhere else. A state may feel compelled to control the island because a rival could use it as an invasion base, even if neither side presently intends to invade. Possession also creates diplomatic leverage by making that future threat credible. Terry Pratchett's Jingo supplies an analogy for Malta as an object of positional competition, deterrence and power projection.