Small countries have got specific problems in their scientific developments. Some of them have to do merely with the fact that everything has to be done by a very small number of people; others may have to do with the fact that everything has to be done with a rather uncommon language; and others still may have to do with financial and other difficulties which small nations very often find themselves in. Israel has the features of some small developing countries, and lacks others. In many respects it is also a rather "abnormal" country. As such it provides a special opportunity for the study of the importance of various factors under extreme conditions. It is from this point of view that we try to analyze the problems facing scientific research in small countries and some ways and means of solving them. Resume Les petites Nations ont leurs problemes specifiques concernant leur developpement scientifique. Pour certaines de ces Nations, ils consistent en ce que tout doit etre fait par un nombre tres reduit de personnes; d'autres ont a faire face au probleme d'une langue qui n'est pas commune et enfin, certaines de ces Nations ont encore des difficultes d'ordre financier, probleme qui se pose souvent aux petites Nations. Israel possede les caracteristiques de certaines petites Nations en voie de developpement; par contre, certaines de ces caracteristiques lui manquent. A certains points de vue Israel est plutot une nation anormale.