Bi-Polar Perspectives: International Theory and the Future of the State
| DOI | 10.1177/002070208403900309 |
| Author | A.J. Miller |
| Published date | 01 September 1984 |
| Date | 01 September 1984 |
| Subject Matter | Review Article |
Review
articles
Bi-polar perspectives:
international
theory
and
the
future
of
the
state
A.J.
MILLER
The
Pursuit
of
Power:
Technology,
Armed
Force,
and
Society
since
A.D.
iooo
by
William
H.
McNeill
(Chicago: University
of
Chicago Press,
1982,
405
pp,
US
$20.00)
The
World
of
States:
Connected
Essays
by
J.D.B.
Miller
(London:
Croom
Helm/New
York:
St
Martin's
Press [Don
Mills,
Ont:
Corpus Information],
1981,
xii/179
PP,
$38.oo)
Theory
of International
Politics
by
Kenneth
N.
Waltz
(Reading
MA
and
Toronto:
Addison-Wesley
Publishing
Company,
1979,
iv/251
pp,
$16.50)
The
End
of
World
Order:
Essays on
Normative
International
Relations
by
Richard
Falk
(New
York:
Holmes
&
Meier
Publishers,
1983, X/358
pp,
us$39.50
cloth,
us$16.5o
paper)
There
is
no
consensus
among
scholars
about
what
is
happening
to
the
state.
Indeed,
some
scholars
doubt that
anything
signifi-
cant
is
happening
to
it
at
all.
When,
for
example,
J.N.
Rosenau
entered
the
Augean
stables
with
a
tract
on
transnationalism
-
whose
underlying
premise
is
the
erosion
of
the
authority
pre-
viously
wielded
by
states
-
he
was
promptly
swept
away by
F.S.
Northedge.
1
In
Northedge's
view,
the
only
challenge
to
the
state
comes
from
other
states.
With
hardly
less
conviction,
Hed-
ley
Bull
disposed
of
the
transnationalist
musings
of
Richard
Falk.
2
In
the
last
analysis,
these are
disputes about
the
extent
to
which
world
politics
remains
state-centric.
But,
the
controversy
also
concerns
the
theoretical
tools
most
appropriate
to
investi-
gation,
and
it
is
in
this
area where the
most
passion
is
gen-
erated.
This
is
vigorously
reaffirmed
by
the
traffic
in
recrimin-
ation
between
two
masters
of
international
political
analysis,
Associate
Professor
of
Politics, Royal
Military
College
of
Canada,
Kingston.
i
James
N.
Rosenau,
'International
studies
in
a
transnational
world,' Millennium:
Journal
of International
Studies
5(spring
1976),
1-2o;
and
F.S.
Northedge,
'Transna-
tionalism:
the
American
illusion,'
ibid,
2
1-7.
2
Hedley
Bull,
The
Anarchical
Society:
A
Study
of
Order
in
World
Politics
(London:
Mac-
millan
1977),
302-5.
Internationaljournal
xxxix
summer
1984
656
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Kenneth
Waltz
and
Morton Kaplan.
3
In
one
sense, at least,
this
is
undeniably
a
bi-polar
world.
This
article
surveys
four
recent
books,
each
of
which
seeks
to
discover
the cardinal
units
in
world
politics.
They
are
marked
by
diversity
of
response.
Two
of
the
books
are
dis-
tinctly
state-centric;
but,
while
one
observes
a
decentralized
sys-
tem
of
states,
the
other
sees
a
condominium
of
power.
They
do
not
seek to
reform
the
state
system.
The
first
and
last
books
sur-
veyed
ultimately
reject
the
state,
one
making
a
despairing
ap-
peal to
world
government
and
the
other
to
a
world
where
power
and
authority
are
decentralized
into
a
variety
of
institu-
tions.
William
McNeill's
volume,
The
Pursuit
of
Power:
Technology,
Armed Force,
and
Society
since
A.D.
10ooo,
is
the
work
of
a
histo-
rian.
This
masterly
book
has
a
number
of
claims
for
inclusion
in
a
paper
which
looks
at
the
future
of
the
state.
There
is,
in
the
first
place,
its
focus.
It
is
a
study
of
the
relationship
between
economics
and
technology
and
between
the
state
and
war.
All
of
these
facets
of
modern
life
come
together
in
the
awesome
nuclear
arms
race.
The
processes
by
which
this
concentration
of
power
occurred
are
also
placed
by
the
author
in
an
historical
and
cross-cultural
context.
McNeill's
thesis
has,
furthermore,
the
attribute
of
simplicity.
His
is
an
analysis
of
two
types
of
soci-
ety
that
have
competed
with
each
other
over
the
centuries.
These
are
the
'command' and
the
'market'
societies.
In
a
command
society
large-scale
innovation
of
both
an
eco-
nomic
and
military
character
is
initiated
by
61ites.
Power
is
con-
centrated.
In
a
market
society,
by
contrast,
power
is
dispersed
and
even
rulers
get
'trapped
in
a
cobweb
of
cash
and credit'
(p
25).
The
command
society
is
closed,
while
the market
society
is
open.
The
change
from
command
to
market structures
oc-
curred
first
in
China,
on
either
side
of
the
year
iooo.
The
Chi-
3
Kenneth
N.
Waltz,
Theory
of
International
Politics
(Reading
MA:
Addison-Wesley
1979),
50-8;
Morton
Kaplan,
Towards
Professionalism
in
International
Theory:
Macro-
system
Analysis
(New
York:
Free
Press
1979),
chap.
i.
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