Book Reviews : The Web of Interdependence. By ERNST B. HAAS. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice- Hall, Inc., 1970. Pp. 119.)
| Published date | 01 December 1970 |
| Date | 01 December 1970 |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297002300430 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
895
The
Web
of
Interdependence.
By
ERNST
B.
HAAS.
(Englewood
Cliffs:
Prentice-
Hall,
Inc.,
1970.
Pp.
119.)
To
disentangle
and
order
systematically
the
diverse
elements
in
the
inter-
national
system
is
a
necessary
but
very
difficult
intellectual
task.
Its
necessity
is
indicated
by
the
fact
that
many
have
seriously
attempted
it,
its
difficulty
by
the
lack
of
complete
success
in
the
attempts.
One
reason
for
this
state
of
affairs
may
be
that
we
do
not
know
enough
about
the
international
system.
Another
is
that
the
use
of
our
knowledge
is
often
distorted
by
prevailing
&dquo;systemic&dquo;
values
and/or
personal
preferences
and
emotions.
Ernst
B.
Haas’
study
on
the
United
States
and
International
Organizations
(The
Web
of
Interdependence)
has,
hardly
unexpectedly,
the
merit
of
having
on
the
whole
successfully
avoided
this
trap.
The
book
consists
of
six
chapters.
The
first
contains
the
theoretical
concepts,
hidden
under
the
innocent
title,
&dquo;Nations
and
Statesmen
in
the
International
System.&dquo;
Chapter
two
deals
with
the
properties
of
the
chief
actor,
whose
relations
to
the
web
of
interdependence
are
described
as
&dquo;American
Democracy
and
the
International
System.&dquo;
The
two
following
chapters
represent
the
main
section
of
the
book,
dealing
with
problems
and
patterns
of
major
concern
for
all
national
actors
of
the
international
system:
&dquo;National
Security,
World
Peace,
and
Disarmament&dquo;
and
&dquo;World
Economic
Development,
Trade,
and
Finance.&dquo;
Chapter
five,
on
&dquo;Human
Rights,
Science,
and
Technology,&dquo;
represents
&dquo;The
Next
Challenge&dquo;
and,
hence,
also
an
aspect
of
the
theme
for
the
final
chapter
on
&dquo;The
Future
of
the
International
System.&dquo;
Both
positively
and
negatively,
the
book
can
be
characterized
in
the
same,
sin-
gle
sentence:
It
is
a
book
with
too
many
dimensions
within
a
too
limited
number
of
pages
-
too
ambitious
for
its
size
or
too
small
for
its
ambitions.
At
least,
this
fact
creates
a
reviewer’s
dilemma.
Basically
the
book
is
a
study
of
the
U.S.
in
rela-
tion
to
international
organizations.
Actually,
the
author
seems
to
be
less
interested
in
these
relations
per
se
than
in
their
role
as
instances
of
an
adjustment
or
adap-
tation
process:
How
actors
(states)
in
the
international
system
become
involved,
or
&dquo;enmeshed&dquo;
(Haas’
standard
term),
how
they
adjust,
the
significance
of
this
process
for
the
U.S.
and
implications
of
all
this
for the
future.
What
I
like
best
in
the
book
is
its
elegant
methodological
demonstration
of
how
to
dissect
this
problem
and
the
absence
in
the
analyses
of
both
officials
doctrine
and
chauvinistic
conceit.
Note
as
one
single
instance
Haas’
conclusions
on
the
failure
of
the
superpowers
to
reach
agreement
on
nuclear
disarmament:
&dquo;Basically,
the
policy
of
the
United
States
after
the
end
of
World
War
II
was
to
pursue
nego-
tiations
that
would
disarm
the
Soviet
Union
while
leaving
intact
the
American
superiority
in
nuclear
weapons.
The
Soviet
Union’s
policy,
not
irrationally,
was
the
mirror
image
of
America’s.&dquo;
Sometimes,
however,
logically
irrefutable
conclusions
seem
singularly
unin-
teresting.
The
following
statement
is
true
but
hardly
interesting:
&dquo;If
the
Peace
Movement
were
to
succeed,
it
would
be
the
first
time
in
American
history
that
an
ad
hoc
group
of
intense
commitment...
signally
affected
the
course
of
policy.&dquo;
The
interesting
point(
to
me)
would
be
that,
if
so,
one
could
probably
also
say
that
this
occurred
when
the
U.S.
for
the
first
time
met
with
utter
failure
in
a
military
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