Book Department
| DOI | 10.1177/000271627944500117 |
| Published date | 01 September 1979 |
| Date | 01 September 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
167
Book
Department
INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
KURT
GLASER
and
STEFAN
POSSONY.
Victims
of
Politics:
The
State
of
Human
Rights.
Pp.
xxiv,
614.
New
York:
Columbia
University
Press,
1979.
$30.00.
Glaser
and
Possony’s
Victims
of
Politics
is
very
timely.
Although,
since
time
immemorial,
victims-the
essence
of
wronged
innocence-have
been
used
to
measure
the
world’s
justice,
yet
as
never
before
victims
have
become
key
to
all
American
ethical
discourse.
Four
reasons
help
explain
this.
First,
the
moral
universes
of
the
radicalism
and
liberation
movements
of
the
1960s
and
1970s-which
in
main
were
unabashedly
Manichean-
divided
humanity
into
innocent
vic-
tims
and
America,
universal
victimizer.
Second,
superseding
that
simplistic
ethical
world
view,
Cambodia,
Ireland,
the
Near
East,
and
Uganda-to
choose
a
few
of
the
most
significant
examples-
instructed
Americans
about
the
reality
of
worldwide
processes
of
victimization
which
were
beyond
the
power
of
the
United
States
to
cause
or
to
prevent.
Third,
Solzenitsyn’s
Gulag
Archipelago
singularly
made
vivid
in
our
minds
the
continuing
presence
in
our
world
of.
state
totalitarianisms
that
tolerate
no
dis-
sent
and
aggressively
harness
the
bodies
and
minds
of
its
citizens
to
its
pyramids.
Fourth
there
was
the
declaration
of
Car-
ter’s
Human
Rights
Policy.
On
the
matter
of
victims,
Glaser
and
Possony’s
work
has
no
substitute.
No
single
volume-or
even
several
vol-
umes
in
combination-provides
an
al-
ternative
survey
of
the
world’s
political
victims.
Also
highly
praiseworthy,
this
double-columned,
six
hundred
page
work
is
consistently
well
written.
At
no
point
do
the
authors
yield
to
jargon,
schemes
of
quasisystemization
or
trans-
historical
dialectics.
The
work
is
divided
into
five
main
parts.
Part
I,
&dquo;Ethical
and
Legal
Per-
spectives,&dquo;
examines
definitions
of
hu-
man
nature,
human
rights
as
defined
by
international
law,
and
Nuremberg
principles
in
light
of
their
ability
to
provide
a
perspective
on
types
of
vic-
timization.
Part
II,
&dquo;Groups
and
their
Interaction,&dquo;
suggests
inherent
group
processes-their
behavior,
stratifica-
tion,
and
interaction-which
account
for
the
formation
of,
and
discrimina-
tion
against,
minorities.
Part
III,
&dquo;Groups
Involved
in
Discrimination
and
Oppres-
sion,&dquo;
specifically
addresses
the
issues
of
groups
suppressing
groups.
Three
separate
sections
are
devoted
to
such
matters
as
oppression
of
nationalities,
ethnic
groups,
religious
groups,
race
discrimination,
color
prejudice,
outcast
groups,
as
well
as
&dquo;class,
caste
and
sex
discrimination.&dquo;
Part
IV,
&dquo;Functional
Areas
of
Discrimination,&dquo;
surveys
&dquo;dis-
crimination
against
entire
cultures,&dquo;
&dquo;language,
religious,
and
educational
discrimination,&dquo;
&dquo;economic
discrimina-
tion,&dquo;
&dquo;legal
discrimination,&dquo;
and
&dquo;polit-
168
ical
discrimination.&dquo;
Part
V,
examining
extreme
forms
of
discrimination,
contains
separate
chapters
on
&dquo;mass
expulsions
and
forced
migrations,&dquo;
&dquo;slavery,&dquo;
&dquo;forced
labor,&dquo;
&dquo;torture,&dquo;
&dquo;brainwashing
in
East
and
West,&dquo;
&dquo;extermination
of
primitive
communities,&dquo; &dquo;genocide.&dquo;
Naturally,
a
work
of
these
dimensions
invites
some
criticisms.
Unlike
the
con-
venient
three
part
index
(divided
into
persons,
places,
peoples
and
languages,
and
critical
subjects),
the
bibliography
is
an
unannotated,
thirty
page,
alpha-
betical
listing
of
works.
Eliciting
the
criticism
of
some
will
undoubtedly
be
the
authors’
consistent
criticism
of
Com-
munism
and
communist
regimes,
which
will
be
understood
.as
mirroring
their
ties
to
the
Hoover
Institution
on
War,
Revolution,
and
Peace.
In
turn,
the
authors’
general
sympathies
for
Israel
as
well
as
their
broad
acceptance
of
the
positions
of
the
&dquo;new&dquo;
ethnicity
will
draw
the
criticism
of
others.
More
general
yet
will
be
the
criticism
that
vic-
tims
and
the
processes
of
victimization
ultimately
cannot
be
equated
exclu-
sively
to
political
functions
and
political
rights;
but
as
victims
of
economics,
pol-
lution,
and
abortion
suggest,
the
process
of
victimization
has
transpolitical
roots
in
vast
material
forces
and
intellectual
ideas.
These
criticisms,
be
they
valid
or
in-
valid,
are
not
intended
to
subtract
from
the
worth
of
this uniquely
comprehen-
sive
work,
or
yet
its
bold
attempt,
to
help
lay
the
groundwork
for
consciously
and
intelligently
putting
human
rights
at
the
center
of
our
national
political
discourse.
Although
most
will
not
ven-
ture
to read
this
work
cover
to
cover,
there
is
an
overwhelming
power
to
the
book,
which
reads
like
an
encyclopedia
of
man’s
evil
to
man.
JOSEPH
AMATO
Southwest
Minnesota-State
College
Marshall
CAREY
B.
JOYNT
and
PERCY
E.
COR-
BETT.
Theory
and
Reality
in
World
Politics.
Pp.
ix,
147.
Pittsburgh:
University
of
Pittsburgh
Press,
1978.
No
price.
CHARLES
LOCKHART.
Bargaining
in
International
Conflicts.
Pp.
viii,
205.
New
York:
Columbia
University
Press,
1979.
$12.50.
There
is
little
in
common
between
these
two
additions
to
the
literature
on
world
politics
beyond
the
desire
of
the
authors
to
explain
some
of the
complexi-
ties
of
international
relations.
Theory
and
Reality
in
World
Politics
is
elegantly
written
by
two
distinguished
professors
with
decades
of
experience
behind
them.
Carey
Joynt
and
Percy
Corbett
do
not
conceal
their
own
abhorrence
of
war
or
preference
for
a
just
international
order
in
exploring
a
subject
seemingly
dominated
by
conflict.
Bargaining
in
International
Conflicts
is
by
an
erudite
man
commencing
his
career.
Charles
Lockhart
is
reticent
about
his
personal
values
as
he
analyzes
the
political
components
of international
conflicts
and
the
bargaining
they
entail.
Though
both
volumes
are
slim,
Joynt
and
Carey
give
us
a
wide
sweep
born
of
deep
knowledge
which
is
immensely
satisfying.
Lockhart’s
examination
of
a
single
process
from
different
perspec-
tives
provides
another
kind
of intellec-
tual
stimulation.
We
can
use
both
ap-
proaches
though
individual
preferences
may
differ.
A
critical
survey
of
major
theories
in
world
politics
is
welcome
for
itself.
Joynt
and
Corbett
give
us
more
because
they
test
theories
of
state
action
against
the
reality
of the
nuclear
age.
An
opening
chapter
on
ethics
confronts
the
well
known
claims
of
the
Realpolitik
school
of
thought
with
the
fact
that
all
state
decisions
are
ultimately
based
on
and
judged
by
value
systems,
and
with
the
question
&dquo;what
[state]
ends
indeed
are
so
precious
that
they
justify
the
destruc-
tion
of
whole
societies?&dquo;
(p.
15).
There
follow
two
chapters
on
the
ideas
of
jus-
tice
and
the
growing
role
of
&dquo;law-like
norms&dquo;
in
relations
between
states.
The
contributions
of
the
behavioral
sciences
and
systems
theory
to
the
field
-especially
to
the
study
of
international
conflict-are
admirably
summed
up
with
references
to
the
major
exponents
of
these
theories.
But
we
are
warned
169
against
hasty
evaluation
of
empirical
literature
and
reminded
that history
&dquo;is
the
laboratory
in
which
we
work&dquo;
(p.
115).
All
who
regret
rivalry
between
the
scientific
and
historical
approaches
must
agree
that
&dquo;history
and
science
in
the
study
of
politics
are
united
by
neces-
sity
in
a
permanent
and
inextricable
alliance&dquo;
(p.
118).
The
authors
do
not
present
Marxist
interpretations
of
inter-
national
politics
but
briefly
consider
some
European
and
Soviet
comments
on
American
theory.
Finally,
they
describe
deterrence
theory,
deploring
a
tendency
to
confine
strategic
analysis
to
military/
technological
matters.
Their
call
is
for
more
accurate
theoretical
understanding
of
the
real
world
so
that
there
can
be
a
conscious
attempt
made
to
&dquo;build
com-
mon
institutions
on
the
limited
willing-
ness
of
states
to
recognize
common
inter-
ests
in
international
security&dquo;
(p.
97).
Bargaining
in
International
Conflicts
begins
with
a
review
of
bargaining
theories
in
economics
and
psychology,
finding
them
inadequate
for
the
study
of
international
conflicts.
Drawing
on
specific
&dquo;severe
conflict
episodes&dquo;-
especially
the
Anglo-French
Fashoda
Crisis,
1898,
the
Franco-German
Agadir
Crisis,
1911,
the
Berlin
Crisis
1958-62,
and
the
Cuban
Missile
Crisis,
1962-
Lockhart
analyzes
the
bargaining
proc-
ess
between
states
in
conflict.
At
the
core
of
this
process
he
sees
three
sub-
sets :
Interpretation
of
information,
in
which
the
risks
of
misperception
are
high
and
the
need
for
clear
communica-
tion
between
statesmen
crucial;
Deci-
sion
making,
in
which
domestic
pres-
sures,
previous
experience,
and
esti-
mates
of
international
dangers
and
opportunities
influence
statesmen;
Strat-
egy
for
managing
the
situation,
in
which
a
domestic
phase
is
separate
from
but
intertwined
with
an
international
phase.
Lockhart
relates
the
different
subsets
and
topics
in
a
conceptual
framework
by
developing
an
&dquo;analytical
chronology
of
bargaining&dquo;
in
terms
of
four
phases:
Intolerable
violation;
An
act
of
re-
sistance ;
Confrontation;
Accommoda-
tion.
While
all
&dquo;severe
conflict
epi-
sodes&dquo;
are
seen
to
begin
&dquo;when
some
change
of
existing
circumstances
creates
a
situation
in
which
one
nation
must
confront
another&dquo;
(p.
139),
each
differs
as
to
cause
as
well
as
in
the
duration
or
direction
of
the
four
phases.
By
compar-
ing
the
actions
governments
took
in
dif-
ferent
situations
of
crisis,
Lockhart
underlines
the
influence
of
national/
personal
perceptions
and
domestic
pres-
sures
on
the
dilemmas
faced
and
choices
made.
Lockhart
has
examined
the
bargaining
between
roughly
equal
&dquo;great
powers&dquo;
in
conflict.
He
could
further
apply
his
model
to
the
many
examples
of
conflicts
between
states
of
less
than
&dquo;great
power&dquo;
status,
and
bargaining
between
international
parties
with
obviously
assymetrical
power
resources.
Perhaps
he
could
also
present
his
conclusions
in
a
style
easier
to
follow
than
his
present
book.
SURJIT
MANSINGH
Trinity
University
San
Antonio
Texas
VOJTECH
MASTNY.
Russia’s
Road
to
the
Cold
War:
Diplomacy,
Warfare,
and
the
Politics
of
Communism,
1941-
1945.
Pp.
xix,
409.
New
York:
Colum-
bia
University
Press,
1979.
$16.95.
Professor
Vojtech
Mastny,
who
has
previously
published
a
study
of
The
Czechs
under
Nazi
Rule
with
the
Co-
lumbia
University
Press
imprint,
and
who
teaches
history
at
the
University
of
Illinois
(Urbana-Champaign),
now
turns
his
research
to
the
subject
of
Soviet
diplomacy
and
the
Cold
War.
While
his
new
book
sketches
in
backgrounds
and
traditions
of
Russian
and
Soviet
foreign
policy
(not
always
accurately),
its
main
concern
is
with
the
period
from
the
German
attack
on
Russia
in
June
1941
to
August
1945,
the
time
of
the
Potsdam
Conference.
The
presentation
of
this
central
por-
tion
of
the
work
is
careful,
detailed
and,
in
general,
balanced-if
one
excepts
a
perhaps
undue
attention
to
Czecho-
slovakia
or
an
occasional
outburst
such
as
the
characterization
of
the
Carpathian
Ukraine
as
&dquo;the
wretched
piece
of land.&dquo;
Sources
are
utilized
skillfully
even
as
the
To continue reading
Request your trial