Review: International: Peace in Parts
| Published date | 01 March 1973 |
| Author | D. Puchala |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207302800110 |
| Date | 01 March 1973 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEWS
157
of
the
level
of
public
discussion
of
important
issues
in
an
age
charac-
terized
by
moist
feelings
and
muddled
thinking.
J.H.
Dales/University
of
Toronto
INTERNATIONAL
PEACE IN PARTS
Integration
and
Conflict
in Regional Organization
J.
S.
Nye
Boston:
Toronto:
Little,
Brown,
1971,
xiv,
21opp,
$4.55
Joseph
S.
Nye
is
among the
very
few
scholars
truly competent
in
the
comparative
study
of
regional
organizations.
His
detailed
knowledge
of
regional
undertakings
in
Europe,
Africa,
Asia,
and Central and
South
America,
his mastery
of
methods
of
comparative
research,
and
his
com-
mitment
to
empirical
theory combine
to
give
the
reader
of
Peace
in
Parts
a
most
rewarding intellectual
experience.
Nye's
research
is
directed toward
shedding light
upon
relationships
between
regionalism and
peace.
As
the
author quite
rightly
indicates,
there
have
been
any
number
of claims
about
the
activities
of
regional
organizations
in
creating
'islands
of
peace.'
Yet,
nowhere
was
there
to
be
found
a
comprehensive,
systematic
analysis
of
actual
impacts
of
regionalism
upon
international
conflict.
Nor
certainly
was
there
to
be
found
any
explanation
of these
impacts.
Peace
in Parts
represents
an
important
step
in
both
of
these
directions.
After
a
careful, well-documented
survey
of
intra-regional
conflicts
on three
continents,
Nye
concludes
that
regional
common
markets
and
similar
functional
networks
have
had
some,
though
not
very
great,
effect
in
dampening
conflict
and
discouraging
violence.
What
effect
has
been
registered
has
followed
largely
because
economic
bonds
and
other
functional
ties
tend
to raise
the
cost
of conflict
among
partners,
hence
deterring
it.
Similarly,
in
regional
security
organizations
(such
as
the
OAS,
OAU,
and
the
Arab
League),
conflict
control
has been
in
evidence,
but
again
to
a
limited
extent.
Intermittent
successes
at
pre-
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