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Review: [untitled]Author(s): Barry BuzanSource: International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 57, No. 1(Winter, 1980-1981), pp. 124-125Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Royal Institute of International AffairsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2619376 .

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124 INTERNATIONAL FFAIRS

it uffersrommuch he ameweaknessess this ssociated ompendium-thecope stoowide ndthe ategorisationorced. ot for hefirstime,moreover, ith ooks nthemilitary,heres the mpressionhat heauthorsctually nowvery ittlenany

direct ense about oldiers r armies.They have no real feel' for heir ubject ndAmos Perlmutter's ery pecific iew of the unique sraeli rmy imply erves ocompoundheproblem.

The historicalnd geographicalange f thisparticular eader onstitutes realdifficulty,hichon thisevidencewould seem insuperable.n severalrespects heomissions re nfuriating.here sno attempthat couldfindtheres no index) oput Von Clausewitz'sfamous ommentaryn perspective, o reference o EricNordlinger'smportantrticleSoldiers n Mufti', ndonlyJames . Jordan n Chinatohelp he tudentome o terms ith he onceptf people's rmys analternativeto nstitutionalisedrofessionalism.

Some authorsretreated nduly enerously.amuelP. Huntington'sife'sworkmaywelldeserve hree ntriesnthe ection n The Professionaloldier'butAlfredStepan'sfive n theLatinAmerican ection s hard o ustify,s isCorelliBarnett'sthree utof hefour nthehistoryf heBritishrmy. erlmutterimself,part romhis general ontributions,mbracesJapan and Syria as well as Israel and NaziGermany. he country-by-countryoverage s also veryuneven.Ghanagets twocitations, igeria nd the Sudan none. At the least this book would have beenenormouslymprovedy bibliographicalectionwith eferenceso areas ndexpertsotherwiseeft ut.As it s,theoverall mpressions one ofdiscriminationmountingto biasboth nselectionndpresentation.

It begins osound s though he ubjectmerits multi-volumencyclopaedia.ntheother and heconceptual lassification,ith ts mphasisnpraetorianism,aybe primarilyt fault.A differenttyle of sub-division-into, or example, themotivationnd circumstancesfmilitaryoups, heperformancefmilitaryegimesand their mpact n differentolicy reas-mighthave been morerewarding.Weshouldperhaps e mostgratefulhatthebookas it stands anges crossthe socialsciencesnd s not ooobsessedwith hedemarcationinesbetween hem.

UniversityfAston nBirmingham WILLIAMF. GUITTERIDGE

The Political Economy ofWar and Peace: The Sino-Soviet-Americanriangleand the ModernSecurity roblematique.y RichardK. Ashley.London:Frances inter; ew York;Nichols. 980.384pp. ndex. 15.00.

THIS saninteresting,utdifficult,ook. t s, nfact,wo rpossiblyhree ooks, ndthe ttemptomake hem llfitwithinnesetof overss the ource fbothmuch fthe nterestnd a goodmeasure f hedifficulty.he authorertainlyoesnot ackforambitionn thetaskshe setshimself:o elaborate generalmodelof nternationalrelationsased nthework fChoucri ndNorth, opresent major as'e tudy s anexercisen operationalisinghemodel, nd to mount n extensiveritique f the

prevailingpproacheso internationaltudies.An undertakingn this calehas theconsiderablentellectualppealofall systematicttemptso think ig'n and t s tothe uthor's redit ndourbenefithat ebringsuch nimpressiverray f nalyticalskill ndtheoreticalnderstandingothe ob.

The volum s so rich n criticism,nsightnd themes hat t is notpossible osummarisetfullynthe spaceavailable.tsgeneralmodel s basedonChoucri ndNorthcsdeaof lateral ressure'-roughlypeaking,he endencyf ome ocieties oexpand a result fthe ntemal ynamics ftheir oliticalconomies. uilding nthisidea,the model s expanded o the bilateral ynamics f intersectingateralpressures,nd thence o theconsequentialystemdlevelynamics. he result s a

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DEFENCEAND DISARMAMENT 125

systematicnd sophisticatedtructuralmodelthatcaptures he essence of morefamiliarines of analysis balance of power, ecurity ilemma,mperialism,nd soforth),nd whichcan be used to generate nd connect n arrayof penetrating

hypotheses. his model s explainedn thefirst wo chapters nd elaboratedn thesubsequent even nthe context f the case studym he underlyingrguments insupport f more nsidious ersion fJohnHerz's security ilemma', n which hestructuralynamicsf the nternationalystem ush stronglyowards entralwarwhether anted rnotby he ctors oncerned.

Ashley oes not eave us in the urch, owever,or n the end he reveals he keywithwhichwe might ree urselves romhe deterministicoom of his precedinganalysis. his requires othingess than transformationn ourwayof hinking,orwhatAshley alls technical ationalitycessentiallyhereductionist,roblem-solving,actor nd ssue-oriented,egmentedndnarrowlyocused pproach)s seen to be an

essentiallement rivinghe elf-destructiveynamicf he ystem. e argues nsteadformore holist,dialectical, inkage-orientedodes of thinkingwhich he terms'rationalityroper'. his ine f hinking,n combination ith hemodel, rovide imwithpotent oolsfor ssessing revailingpproaches,nd nthe astchapter e usesthem to good effect n balance-ofdpowerheory, eofunctionalism,mperialismtheory,ndvarious oliticalconomy pproaches.

This book hould e readby llwho re engagedn thedebates bout nternationalrelationsheoryf nly ecause ts enseofbasicdynamicsnthe nternationalystemis so highlyndexplicitlyeveloped.here reworthwhilehallengesomost xistingschools f hought,nda wealth f reativeuggestions orthyffurtherebate nd

analysis.Anyone nterestednmodellingndquantitativepproaches illalso findmuchof value here, hough thought his he weakest ide of the book. AlthoughAshleymakes ommendableffortso explainhe echniquesfhiscase study nalysis(andthepresent eviewers not ompetento assess he echniques sed), he aseas awholefails o emerge oherentlyrom he larger asks at hand. The numerousdiagramsend oconfuse, ore han nlighten,hereader otwellversednthe rts fmodelling, ot leastbecause the significancef connecting rrows s not clearlyexplained.nadequate ttention,nmyview, sgiven oexplainingnd ustifyinghequantitativendicatorssed noperationalisinghemodel,ndtherestheusual copefor rgumentbout pecial actorsikenuclearweaponswhichmight mpingen the

model'shistorical omentum. uch ofthecase analysiss necessarily)urroundedby a fogof qualification hich ompoundsheseproblems.he case study teadilyloses momentum o the more dramatic nd more clearly defined heoreticalarguments,ndwhile tcontributesothese, ofirmonclusionsmerge romt n tsownright.

Insum, lthoughhis ook an be criticisedor aking n toomuch nonego,thereis a compellingogicto itsstructure,ndthe quality fthecontent s sufficientooutweighnydifficultiesreated. here s somedangerhat on-numerateeaders illbe intimidatedytheparaphernaliafquantitative ethodologyhich dor;nshebook, ndI wouldurge uchpersons otto be putoff.Most of the text nd the

argumentanbefollowed ithoutifficulty,nly hemore rcane lements f he asestudy nd themodelremaining eyond each.The argumentsn thisbook areimportantormainstreamnternationalelationsheory,nd twouldbe a great ityfthedebatet houldnspire ere o be confinedotherarefiedlimes fmethodologicalcontroversy.

UniversityfWarwick BARRYUZAN