Complex Interdependence §

• The world is peaceful because it’s interdependent
• Focus on relative gains of economic interdependence

Power can be utilized in interdependence to create sensitivity and vulnerability¹ §

1. Sensitivity: the speed and extent of how changes in one country affects another
   • Social & political actions can be sensitive to changes also
   • Policies can be altered to fix the situation, but not before the economy is affected. (policy formation & implementation takes years)
2. Vulnerability: the costliness of policy change and the availability of alternatives after it is changed
   • Ex: if A can replace oil imports with cheaper alternative than B could manage, A would be better off
   • Weakness:
     • If one set of rules puts an actor in a disadvantageous position, that actor will probably try to change those rules if it can do so at a reasonable cost
     • economic vulnerable states may use military force to attempt to redress that situation as Japan did in 1941

What are the characteristics of world politics under conditions of extensive interdependence? ¹ §

• International Regimes (IRE): have important effects on interdependent relationships
  • IRE can cover functional relations between countries that govern resource sharing, commerce interactions, and communications on an issue-to-issue basis
• Rules and procedures aren’t well enforced as domestic
• IRE are intermediate factors between the power structure of an international system (IS) and the political and economic bargaining that takes place with it
  • to some extent governs the political bargaining and daily decision-making that occurs within the IS

References §

Footnotes §

1. PAI-C01 Interdependence in World Politics ↩ ↩²