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Power and Interdependence revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

Robert O. Keohane  and
Joseph S. Nye Jr
Robert O. Keohane
Affiliation:
Professor of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, Masschusetts.
Joseph S. Nye Jr
Affiliation:
Director of the Center for Science and International Affairs and Professor of Government at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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Type
Review Essay
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International Organization , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , Autumn 1987 , pp. 725 - 753
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1987

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References

1. Boston: Little, Brown, 1977.

2. Raymond Vernon, always a pioneer, exemplified this evaluative process by looking back at his important book, Sovereignty at Bay, ten years after its publication; he responded to criticisms and added his own. See Vernon, , “Sovereignty at Bay Ten Years After,” International Organization 35 (Summer 1981), pp. 517–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar. In a recent special issue of International Studies Notes 12 (Spring 1986)Google Scholar, James N. Rosenau, Kenneth E. Boulding, John H. Herz, William T. R. Fox, and Robert C. North also reflected on their work.

3. Michalak, Stanley J., “Theoretical Perspectives for Understanding International Interdependence,” World Politics 32 (10 1979), p. 150CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4. Brown, Seyom, New Forces in World Politics (Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1974), p. 186Google Scholar.

5. Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S., eds., Transnational Relations and World Politics. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. Hirschman, Albert, National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1945)Google Scholar.

7. In Kindleberger, Charles, ed., The International Corporation (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970)Google Scholar.

8. For a recent analysis that makes this point well, using somewhat different terms, see Holsti, K. J., The Dividing Discipline: Hegemony and Diversity in International Theory (Winchester, Mass.: Allen & Unwin, 1985)Google Scholar.

9. Holsti, K. J., “A New International Politics?” International Organization 32 (Spring 1978), p. 525CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Michalak, , “Theoretical Perspectives,” p. 148Google Scholar. For a mea culpa and a systematic attempt to articulate realist and neorealist assumptions, see Keohane, Robert O., “Theory of World Politics: Structural Realism and Beyond,” in Finifter, Ada, ed., Political Science: The State of the Discipline (Washington, D.C.: American Political Science Association, 1983), pp. 503–40Google Scholar, reprinted in Robert O. Keohane, Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 158–203. Keohane's, later volume, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984)Google Scholar, explicitly seeks to build a theory of institutions, with what could be considered liberal implications, on premises that are consistent with those of political realism.

10. For our account of the connections between integration theory and theories of interdependence, see our article, “International Interdependence and Integration,” in Greenstein, Fred I. and Polsby, Nelson W., eds., Handbook of Political Science, vol. 8 (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1975), pp. 363–414Google Scholar. Karl Deutsch's work on regional integration was equally important to the field as Haas's; although we discuss both in our 1975 article, our own analysis owes a greater debt to Haas's neofunctionalism.

11. In contrast to this position, Holsti asserts that interdependence does not have a problem focus: “The fact of interdependence,” he says, “has to lead to a problem before it warrants serious attention, just as concern with war, peace, order and power led to our field centuries ago.” (Holsti, , The Dividing Discipline, p. 47)Google Scholar.

12. Baldwin, David A., “Interdependence and Power: A Conceptual Analysis,” International Organization 34 (Fall 1980), pp. 471–596CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. Art, Robert J., “To What Ends Military Power?” International Security 4 (Spring 1980), pp. 16–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Prof. Art should be commended, however, for forthrightly acknowledging in print that he had misinterpreted our views. International Security 4 (Fall 1980), p. 189Google Scholar.

14. Rochester, J. Martin, “The Rise and Fall of International Organization as a Field of Study,” International Organization 40 (Autumn 1986), note 52, p. 792CrossRefGoogle Scholar. A similar mistake occurs in Maghroori, Ray and Ramberg, Bennett, eds., Globalism Versus Realism: International Relations' Third Debate (Boulder: Westview Press, 1982)Google Scholar.

15. Ruggie, John Gerard, “International Responses to Technology: Concepts and Trends,” International Organization 29 (Summer 1975), p. 569CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Cooper, Richard N., “Prolegomena to the Choice of an International Monetary System,” International Organization 29 (Winter 1975), p. 64CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Power and Interdependence cites the works by Ruggie, and Cooper, on p. 20Google Scholar.

16. Strange, Susan, “Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis,” International Organization 36 (Spring 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Stephen D. Krasner, ed., International Regimes (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983), where this claim is made on p. 344. For early uses of the regime terminology, see de Visscher, Fernand, Le Regime Nouveau des Ditroits, (Brussels: 1924)Google Scholar, in Extrait de la Revue de Droit Internationale et de Legislation comparie (1924), nos. 1–2; Oppenheim, L., International Law, 5th ed. (New York: Longmans, Green, 1937; edited by Lauterpacht, H.), vol. 1, pp. 207, 366Google Scholar, on regimes for Luxembourg and the Elbe River; Leive, David M., International Regulatory Regimes (Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath: Lexington Books, 1976), 2 vols.Google Scholar; and a variety of articles in the American Journal of International Law, including: 1) Butler, William L., “The Legal Regime of Russian Territorial Waters,” vol. 62 (1968), pp. 51–77Google Scholar; 2) Young, Richard, “The Legal Regime of the Deep-Sea Floor,” vol. 62 (1968), pp. 641–53Google Scholar; 3) Harris, Leo J., “Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities: A New Regime is Soon to be Adopted by the United States,” vol. 62 (1968), pp. 98–113Google Scholar; 4) Riesman, W. Michael, “The Regime of Straits and National Security,” vol. 74 (1980), pp. 48–76Google Scholar; 5) Moore, John Norton, “The Regime of Straits and the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea,” vol. 74 (1980), pp. 77–121Google Scholar.

17. Baldwin, David A., “Power Analysis and World Politics: New Trends Versus Old Tendencies,” World Politics 31 (01 1979), pp. 169, 181CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18. Wagner, Harrison, “Economic Interdependence, Bargaining Power and Political Influence,” unpublished paper, University of Texas, Austin, 10 1986Google Scholar.

19. Our analysis of the 1971 change in the international monetary system illustrates this point. We emphasized not American weakness, but the underlying strength of the U.S. position, quoting Henry Aubrey to the effect that “a creditor's influence over the United States rests on American willingness to play the game according to the old concepts and rules.” Power and Interdependence, p. 140.

20. Stein, Arthur A., “The Politics of Linkage,” World Politics 33 (10 1980), p. 81CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21. Schelling, Thomas, The Strategy of Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), p. 177Google Scholar. Oye's discussion of linkage appears in the introduction of Oye, Kenneth A., Rothchild, Donald, and Lieber, Robert J., Eagle Entangled: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Complex World (New York: Longman, 1979), especially pp. 13–17Google Scholar; see also Haas, Ernst B., “Why Collaborate? Issue-Linkage and International Regimes,” World Politics 32 (04 1980), pp. 357–402CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22. Tollison, Robert and Willett, Thomas, “An Economic Theory of Mutually Advantageous Issue Linkage in International Negotiations,” International Organization 33 (Fall 1979), pp. 425–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sebenius, James, Negotiating the Law of the Sea (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984), especially chap. 6Google Scholar; Sebenius, , “Negotiation Arithmetic,” International Organization 37 (Spring 1983), pp. 281–316CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23. For a brief discussion that draws on empirical work in this special issue of World Politics, see Axelrod, Robert and Keohane, Robert O., “Achieving Cooperation under Anarchy: Strategies and Institutions,” World Politics 39 (10 1986), especially pp. 239–43Google Scholar.

24. Considering the fondness for philosophical jargon in contemporary writing on international relations theory, we should refer to this as the “ontological status” of complex interdependence. Somehow we cannot quite bring ourselves to do this.

25. Vasquez, John A. and Mansbach, Richard W., “The Issue Cycle and Global Change,” International Organization 37 (Spring 1983), pp. 257–79, quotation on p. 274CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Mansbach, and Vasquez, , In Search of Theory: A New Paradigm for Global Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), especially chap. 4Google Scholar.

26. See especially Keohane, and Nye, , “Transgovernmental Relations and International Organizations,” World Politics 27 (10 1974), pp. 39–62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27. As a strategy for research, this approach was probably wise, since it is terribly difficult to link domestic politics and the international system together theoretically without reducing the analysis to little more than a descriptive hodgepodge. Recent efforts to bridge this gap, using the concept of state structure, have made notable progress. See Katzenstein, Peter J., ed., Between Power and Plenty: Foreign Economic Policies of Advanced Industrialized States (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978)Google Scholar; and Katzenstein, Peter J., Small States in World Markets (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

28. Gourevitch, Peter A., “The Second Image Reversed,” International Organization 32 (Autumn 1978), pp. 881–912CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Politics in Hard Times (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

29. Ruggie, “International Responses to Technology.”

30. Robert Jervis identified a Concert of Europe regime in the 19th century; in his discussion of contemporary international politics, however, he looked for a regime in the central strategic relationship between the United States and Soviet Union and failed to find one. Janice Gross Stein and Joseph S. Nye have focused on narrower realms of activity and have discovered meaningful security regimes in contemporary world politics. See Stein, , “Detection and Defection: Security ‘Regimes’ and the Management of International Conflict,” International Journal 40 (Autumn 1985), pp. 599–627Google Scholar; and Nye, , “Nuclear Learning and U.S.-Soviet Security Regimes,” International Organization 41 (Summer 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also an article by Roger Smith, K., which appeared just as this essay was being revised, “The Non-Proliferation Regime and International Relations,” International Organization 41 (Spring 1987), pp. 253–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Smith makes a number of perceptive criticisms of regime theory.

31. Krasner, , ed., International Regimes, p. 2Google Scholar.

32. See Haggard, Stephan and Simmons, Beth, “Theories of International Regimes,” International Organization 41 (Summer 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33. See Keohane, After Hegemony, which discusses money, trade, and oil; and the articles in the Krasner volume, International Regimes, on trade and the balance of payments by Charles Lipson, Jock A. Finlayson and Mark Zacher, and Benjamin J. Cohen. In addition, see articles in International Organization on regimes for: Antarctica, “Antarctica: The Last Great Land Rush” (vol. 34, Summer 1980), by Peterson, M. J.Google Scholar; nuclear proliferation, “Maintaining a NonProliferation Regime” by Nye, Joseph S. (vol. 35, Winter 1981)Google Scholar, and “The Non-Proliferation Regime” (vol. 41, Spring 1987)Google Scholar; by Roger K. Smith; civil aviation, “Sphere of Flying: The Politics of International Aviation” (vol. 35, Spring 1981), by Jonsson, ChristerGoogle Scholar; Third World debt, “The International Organization of Third World Debt” (vol. 35 Autumn 1981), by Lipson, CharlesGoogle Scholar; international shipping, “The Political Economy of International Shipping: Europe versus America” (vol. 39, Winter 1985), by Cafruny, Alan W.Google Scholar; and international commodity regimes, “Trade Gaps, Analytical Gaps: Regime Analysis and International Commodity Trade Regulation” (vol. 41, Spring 1987), by Zacher, MarkGoogle Scholar. Three recent book-length studies seeking to account for the evolution or persistence of international regimes are: Lipson, Charles, Standing Guard: Protecting Foreign Capital in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985)Google Scholar; Krasner, Stephen D., Structural Conflict: The Third World Against Global Liberalism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985)Google Scholar; and Aggarwal, Vinod K., Liberal Protectionism: The International Politics of Organized Textile Trade (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985)Google Scholar.

34. On 3 June 1986, for instance, Soviet First Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev stated in a message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations that “it is quite obvious that there is a practical need to start, without delay, setting up an international regime for the safe development of nuclear energy.” New York Times, 4 06 1986, p. A12Google Scholar. We do not presume to know what led Secretary Gorbachev to use the language of regimes; but Soviet scholars have informed us that they began to use the term in relation to the law of the seas conference in the 1970s. Personal conversations, Moscow, June 1986.

35. Krasner, Stephen D., “Regimes and the Limits of Realism: Regimes as Autonomous Variables,” in Krasner, , ed., International Regimes (New York: Cornell University Press, 1983), pp. 355–68Google Scholar.

36. For an early and insightful attempt, see Young, Oran R., Compliance and Public Authority (Washington, D.C.: Institute for the Future, 1979)Google Scholar.

37. Keohane defines myopic self-interest in terms of “governments' perception of the relative costs and benefits to them of alternative courses of action with regard to a particular issue, when that issue is considered in isolation from others.” After Hegemony, p. 99, italics in original.

38. On the demise of the Bretton Woods international monetary regime, for example, see Gowa, Joanne, Closing the Gold Window: Domestic Politics and the End of Bretton Woods (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983)Google Scholar, and Odell, John S., U. S. International Monetary Policy: Markets, Power and Ideas as Sources of Change (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On rule-evasion and circumvention of textile restraints under the umbrella of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement, see Yoffie, David, Power and Protectionism: Strategies of the Newly Industrializing Countries (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

39. Abram Chayes's study of the role of law in the Cuban Missile Crisis is an exception to this statement about the absence of work on international norms, as embodied, for instance, in international regimes. Chayes does not use the language of regimes, but he discusses the impact of international norms for the peaceful settlement of disputes, as embodied in various international practices and agreements, including the Organization of American States and United Nations Charter. See Chayes, Abram, The Cuban Missile Crisis and the Rule of Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974)Google Scholar.

40. Waltz, Kenneth N., Theory of International Politics (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979)Google Scholar.

41. For a critique of Waltz's work along these lines, see Ruggie, John Gerard, “Continuity and Transformation in the World Polity: Toward a Neorealist Synthesis,” World Politics 35 (01 1983), pp. 261–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar; reprinted in Robert O. Keohane, ed., Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986), pp. 131–57. An extended argument to this effect is provided in Keohane, , After Hegemony, especially chaps. 1, 4–7Google Scholar.

42. Waltz, Kenneth N., “Response to My Critics,” in Keohane, , ed., Neorealism and Its Critics, pp. 322–46Google Scholar.

43. For discussions about the analogy between grammar and systemic processes that facilitate cooperation, we are indebted to Hayward Alker, Jr.

44. On issue density, defined as the number and importance of issues arising within a given policy space, see Keohane, Robert O., “The Demand for International Regimes,” International Organization 36 (Spring 1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Krasner, ed., International Regimes. The reference is to p. 155 of the latter volume.

45. On this method of “process-tracing,” see George, Alexander L. and McKeown, Timothy J., “Case Studies and Theories of Organizational Decision Making,” Advances in Information Processing in Organizations 2 (1985), pp. 21–58Google Scholar; or George, Alexander L., “Case Studies and Theory Development: The Method of Structured, Focused Comparison,” pp. 43–68Google Scholar in Lauren, Paul Gordon, ed., Diplomacy: New Approaches in History, Theory and Policy (New York: Free Press, 1979)Google Scholar.

46. There is actually a spectrum of goals between revolutionary and status quo. Moreover, these goals may be affected by the types of means available to states. See Buzan, Barry, People States and Fear (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

47. The bipolar-multipolar distinction is emphasized by Kenneth N. Waltz, whose Theory of International Politics carefully and systematically develops the notion of political structure whose explanatory inadequacy we are criticizing in this article. For a recent discussion of the 19th century, see Schroeder, Paul W., “The 19th Century International System: Changes in the Structure,” World Politics 39 (10 1986), pp. 1–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Schroeder emphasizes the development of norms for the protection of small countries. What he calls “changes in structure” would not be considered structural changes by Waltz, and we would refer to them as changes in the process of the international system.

48. We are indebted to William Jarosz and Lisa Martin for insightful comments that helped us to clarify the issues in this section.

49. Etheredge, Lloyd, Can Governments Learn? (New York: Pergamon Press), p. 143Google Scholar; also “Government Learning: An Overview,” in Long, Samuel, ed., Handbook of Political Behavior, vol. 2 (New York: Plenum Press, 1981), pp. 73–161Google Scholar.

50. Haas, Ernst B., “Why We Still Need the United Nations: The Collective Management of International Conflict, 1945–1984,” Policy Paper in International Affairs No. 26 (Berkeley: Institute of International Studies, 1986), p. 68Google Scholar.

51. Haas, Ernst B., “Why Collaborate? Issue-Linkage and International Regimes,” World Politics 32 (04 1980), p. 390CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Steinbruner, John D., The Cybernetic Theory of Decision (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1974)Google Scholar, and Jervis, Robert, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

52. Neustadt, Richard and May, Ernest, Thinking in Time (New York: Free Press, 1986)Google Scholar.

53. For an argument that this should be a goal of farsighted policymakers, see Keohane, Robert O. and Nye, Joseph S. Jr, “Two Cheers for Multilateralism,” Foreign Policy 61 (Fall 1985)Google Scholar.