If You Want to Prosper Accept Decline: The Absolute Gains Problem for Competition
| Author | J. David McLeod |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209605100307 |
| Published date | 01 September 1996 |
| Date | 01 September 1996 |
J.
DAVID
MCLEOD
The
Marvin
If
you
want
to
prosper
Gelber
Pize
accept decline:
1995
the
absolute
gains
problem
for
competition
The
quest
for
peace
has
filled
libraries
with
pamphlets,
journal
articles,
and
weighty
tomes.
The
advent
of
nuclear
weapons
has
only
intensified
the
publication
of thoughts
on
the
subject.
But
the
contribution
made
by
this
literature
to
the
maintenance
of
peace
is
limited
because
most
of
it
studies peace
without
consid-
ering
change.
The
ongoing
structural
changes
in
the
interna-
tional
system
since
the
end
of
the
Cold
War
showjust
how
myopic
mainstream
international
thinking
has
been
over
the
last
50
years.
Fundamental
political
change
is
not
obviated
by
nuclear
deterrence.
Efforts
to
secure
peace
without
methods
to
facilitate
political
change
will
always
unravel.
If
by
chance
they
were
to
succeed,
they
would
ossify
prevailing
social
structures
and
per-
petuate
the
injustices
of
the
status
quo.
Those
who
study
inter-
national
co-operation
have
contributed
only
marginally
to
an
understanding
of
the problems
and
prospects
for
peaceful
change
because
co-operation
is
not
the
same
as
peaceful
change.'
This
essay
was
awarded
the
Marvin
Gelber
pri:e
for
1995.
Established in
recognition
of
the
abiding
interest
of
Marvin
Gelber
in
international
affairs and
of
his
many
years
of
service
to
the
Canadian
Institute
of
International
Affairs,
the
prize
is
awarded
annually
to
the
article
by
a
junior
Canadian
scholar
on
a
subject
in
the
area
of
international
affairs
and
foreign
policy
which
is
judged
best
bq
the
prize
committee
for
its
sound
scholarship
and
good
writing.
The
author
is
a
fonner
lecturer
in
International
Relations at
the
Universit-
of
Wales,
Swansea.
He
is
now
completing
a
doctoral
disseration
at
the
University
of
Wales,
Aberystwyth.
He would
like
to
thank Richard
Little
for
comments
on
a
draft
of
this
paper
and
the
Marvin
Gelber
Prize
judges
for
their
helpful
suggestions.
An
example of the
common
practice
of equating
peaceful
change
with
co-
operation
is
to
be
found
in
Kenneth
N.
Waltz,
'Reflections
on
Theory
of
International
Politics
a
response
to
my
critics,'
in
Robert
0.
Keohane,
ed,
iVeorealism
and
its
Critics (New
York:
Columbia
University
Press
1986)
,
336.
internationalJournal
LI
SUMMER
1996
530
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
International
relations theorists
often
explain interstate
co-
operation
by
examining
the
gains
that
accrue
to
states
through
co-operation.
As
commonly
presented,
there
are
two
types
of
gains.
Absolute
gains
are
simply
the
direct
benefits
that
states
receive
from
co-operative
efforts.
All
states
which
are party
to
a
co-operative
arrangement
can
enjoy
absolute
gains,
which,
in
theory,
can
be
measured
objectively.
Relative
gains
are
more
difficult
to
assess
because
they
arise
from
differences
in
the
ben-
efits
that
states
get
from
co-operating.
Relative
gains
are
zero-
sum:
if
the
beneficial
outcomes
of
co-operation
are
evenly
shared,
no
one
receives
relative
gains.
Neoliberal
institutionalist theories
of
co-operation start
from
the premise
that
absolute
gains are
most
important
to
states.
Therefore,
neoliberals
expect
that
states
will
be
eager
co-oper-
ators
and
that
agreements
will
be
durable,
so
long
as
they
bring
gains.
Neorealists,
who
ascribe
to
the
power
politics
tradition,
expect
states
to
be
more
concerned
about
the
distribution
of
power.
Therefore,
relative
gains
are
important.
According
to
neorealists,
co-operation
is
difficult
to
initiate
and
nearly impos-
sible
to
sustain
on
a
voluntary
basis.
Both
neoliberals
and neo-
realists
accept
that
the
intensities
of
absolute
and
relative
gains
concerns
vary
as
prevailing
circumstances
change,
but
these
modifications
are
not
significant
enough
to
undermine
their
respective conclusions.
Over
the
last
ten
years,
neoliberals
and
neorealists
have
engaged
in
a
debate
about
the
feasibility
of international
co-oper-
ation
in
which
absolute
gains
are
pitted
against
relative
gains.
This
debate
is
important
because
it
identifies
conditions that
facilitate
or
discourage
co-operation
and
suggests policies
that
achieve
and
secure
interstate
co-operation.
However,
the absolute
versus relative
gains
debate
focusses
on
international
political
economy:
the great
testing
ground
for
neoliberal
and
neorealist
ideas
on
co-operation
is
the
evolving
European
Union.e
2
Joseph
M.
Grieco,
'The
Maastricht
Treay,
economic
and
monetary union
and the
new
neo-realist research
programme,'
Review
of
Inter-national Studies
s(January
1995),
26-32.
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