Washingtonpost.

Newsweek Interactive, LLC

Keeping Realism Relevant

Author(s): Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Source: Foreign Policy, No. 111 (Summer, 1998), pp. 166-167
Published by: Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, LLC
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1149398 .
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Letters

The international
communityin generalandthe United
wardlooking.
havebenefitedfromthisdramatictransformation.
Statesin particular
is
That is not to saythat Chinais devoidof problems.Corruption
and personalconnectionsstill mattera greatdeal more
widespread,
intrudefartoo muchon decisionsthat
than they should.Bureaucrats
And
andentrepreneurs.
withinthe provinceof individuals
areproperly
the daily
the rapideconomicgrowththat has improvedsubstantially
lives of so manypeoplehas also producednightmareenvironmental
conditionsin manylargeurbanareas,as Lamptonrightlypointsout.
To dealeffectivelywithChinaoverthe next 25 yearson theseand
of whathelpedbring
otherissues,we musthavea betterunderstanding
aboutthe positivechangesthathaveoccurredin Chinaoverthe past
twoanda halfdecades.
Ambassador
CarlaA. Hills
& CEO
Chairman
Hills& Company
DC
Washington,
KEEPING

REALISM

RELEVANT

To the Editor:
In his article,"International
Relations:
One World,ManyTheories"
asks
Walt
shouldcareabout
(Spring1998),Stephen
whypolicymakers
the scholarlystudyof international
affairs.
As a scholarwho spentfive
of my
yearsin highpolicypositions,I wasoftenstruckbythe irrelevance
formercolleaguesto my policy-making
The
academic
contemporaries.
wasoftenimpenetrable,
butmoreimportant,
the cacophonyof
language
contradictoryideas rarelyprovidedmuch leverageon the world.
are
Nonetheless,as Keynespointedout 60 yearsago,thosein authority
oftendistillingthe ideasof "someacademic
of a fewyearsback."
scribblers
Waltdoesa goodjobof displaying
the disarray
of recenttheorizing
on
international
of liberaffairs,
thoughone candifferwithhissimplification
alismandhis lumpingof constructivist
theoriesinto a residualgrab-bag
of
"radical
He
however,on
category
approaches." providesno guidance,
howto reconcilethedifferent
he
has
other
approaches
catalogued, thanto
remainsthe mostcompelling
Even
saythat"realism
generalframework."
166

FOREIGN

POLICY

Letters

if thatstatementis true,it is not veryhelpfulwhensomerealistsurgeNATO

expansionwhile othersdeploreit, and some realistpredictionsof West
Europeandisintegrationafterthe end of the Cold Warseem falsifiedby
who simplylookedto "realism"
forguidance.
history.Pitythe policymakers
Twodecadesago, RobertKeohaneand I publisheda book,Powerand
which does not fit neatly into the liberalor realistcateInterdependence,
gories.In the firstpart,we showedhow asymmetricaleconomicinterdependencecouldaddanotherinstrumentin traditionalrealiststrugglesfor
power.We went on, however,to askwhat politicswouldlook like if one
reversedthe traditionalrealistassumptionsand imagineda worldwith a
minor role of force, less dominance of security issues, and multiple
transnationalcontacts.We called this ideal type "complexinterdependence."We arguedthat mostdomainsof worldpoliticsapproximated
the
realistmodel, but we providedevidence that some were beginningto
approximatethe assumptionsof complex interdependence.I found our
academicscribblingshelpfulwhen I wasworkingon complexpolicyproblemssuchas the designand implementationof nonproliferation
policyin
the 1970s,or the designof EastAsian securitypolicy in the 1990s.
With the rapidgrowthof informationtechnology,I suspectwe will
see more situations that approximatesome degree of complex interdependence. Realismwill remaina basicframeworkfor much of international politics, but if realist theorists fail to understandthe rising
role of transnationalinformationand soft power,their irrelevancewill
graduallyincrease.

S. Nye,Jr.
Joseph

School
Dean,JohnF.Kennedy
ofGovernment
Harvard
University

Massachusetts
Cambridge,
WHAT'S

IN A TITLE?

To the Editor:
I foundmuchto admireand agreewith in RobertKeohane'sarticle
(Spring1998).I was,however,puzzledby the title. "CanInterdependenceWork?"
soundsa littlelike"canyoualterthe weather?"
Interdeon
is
a
not
pendence,depending definition, fact, somethingthatdoes
or does not "work."
It is a conditionresultingfromearlierhistorical
SUMMER1998

167