Review: Peace & Security: Regional Powers and Small State Security
| Author | Arthur Rubinoff |
| Published date | 01 June 1996 |
| Date | 01 June 1996 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209605100219 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
380
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL
rational
choice
predict
the
same
behaviour.
The
two
bodies
of
theory
have
divergent predictions
only
in
quite
narrowly specified
circum-
stances.
This
dramatically
increases
the
information requirements
for
assessing
their
relative
explanatory
power,
and
Avoiding
Losses/Taking
Risks
is
particularly
good
at
identifying
the obstacles
to
that
endeavour.
Nevertheless,
as
Barbara
Farnham's
study
of
the
Munich
crisis
dem-
onstrates,
prospect
theory,
in
the
hands
of
a
careful
analyst,
can
illu-
minate decisions
in world
affairs
that
resist
rational-actor
explanations.
David
Welch/University
of
Toronto
REGIONAL
POWERS
AND SMALL
STATE
SECURITY
India
and
Sri
Lanka,
1977-90
KIM.
de
Silva
Washington
Dc
and
Baltimore
MD:
Woodrow Wilson
Center
Press
and
Johns
Hopkins
University Press,
1995,
388pp,
US$
4
8.5o
This valuable
account of
India's
ill-fated
intervention
in
Sri
Lanka
dur-
ing
the
late
198os
is
based on de
Silva's access
to
the
papers
of
former
President
J.R.
Jayewardene
and
other
previously
secret
material.
The
author,
who
is
director
of
the
International
Center
for Ethnic
Studies
at
Kandy
and
professor
of
history
at
the
University
of
Peradeniya,
also
interviewed
Indian
principals
-
including
the
late
prime
minister,
Rajiv
Gandhi.
(Given
New
Delhi's
archival
restrictions,
it
is
unlikely
that
a
corresponding
volume
based
on
Indian
materials
will
ever
appear.)
The
Indian-Sri
Lankan
relationship
is
one
of
the
most
asymmetrical
in
the
world:
India,
the
major
power
in
south
Asia,
has
fifty
times the
population
of
its
island
neighbour.
Since
over
74
per
cent of
Sri
Lanka's
population
is
of
Sinhalese-Buddhist
ethnicity,
Tamil
Hindus are
vastly
outnumbered.
Only
11
per
cent
of
the
population
is
descended
from
the
Tamils
who
migrated
centuries
ago,
while
another
4
per
cent
is
descended
from
Tamils
imported
by
the
British
to
work
on tea
plan-
tations.
Yet
because
Sri
Lankan
Tamils
are
linked culturally
and
politi-
cally
to
more
than
50
million
kinsmen
in
the
southern
Indian state
of
Tamil
Nadu,
the
Sinhalese
community
of
ten
million
perceives
itself
as
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