Asymmetric Interdependence Research Articles

The Political Consequences of Resource Dependence - How Natural Gas Export Can Affect Policy Outcomes: A Quantitative Analysis

With the use of a liberal/rational framework as a baseline, this article examines whether economic asymmetric interdependence can yield political influence. More specifically, it examines exogenous gas supply to the EU and develops a theory that provides testable hypotheses aiming to answer whether the export of gas provides political advantages for the sender state. The outlined hypotheses, and more, are tested in a cross sectional time series dataset, where votes in the United Nations (UN) Assembly are used as the dependent variable, as a measurement for the policy preferences of states. The empirical findings support the prediction made in the theory section. Gas dependence has a conditional effect on policy behaviour. The sender government has to be a sizeable international power, whilst the recipient government should have low military capabilities and be dependent on foreign support.

Unidade na diversidade: os fundamentos do Direito Cosmopolita e sua função no estabelecimento de uma moeda mundial

Este artigo objetiva verificar se é possível e como é possível utilizar o Direito Cosmopolita para reconstruir a atual ordem mundial segundo princípios de justiça, de modo a alcançar a paz perpétua e eliminar a pobreza. Serão expostos os fundamentos do direito cosmopolita, contrastando-os com as relações de poder vigentes no âmbito internacional que são caracterizadas como de interdependência assimétrica. Partindo-se da premissa de que as sociedades contemporâneas podem ser compreendidas como sistemas que oscilam entre a cooperação e o conflito, serão analisadas as estruturas institucionais subjacentes a essa tensão social, com destaque para o funcionamento do sistema monetário internacional. Após a identificação dos fatores institucionais causadores do conflito e da pobreza, analisaremos a proposta oferecida por keynes, em Bretton Woods, de criação de uma moeda mundial de reserva. Isso será feito com o intuito de constatar se essa proposta se adequa aos fundamentos do Direito Cosmopolita no sentido de ser um meio de eliminar a injustiça, retirando, por conseguinte, o principal óbice para o atingimento da paz.

Russia's Energy Leverage over the EU: Myth or Reality?

Today, the EU is less dependent on Russian energy than it was two decades ago. Nevertheless, EU-Russia energy relations are more widely understood in terms of power, security and zero-sum geopolitical competition. This article challenges this Neo-Realist argument. Drawing on Keohane's and Nye's concepts of interdependence sensitivity and vulnerability, it both tests the actual degree of EU energy dependence and the extent to which dependence may create Russian leverage. It is found that the actual EU supply dependence is overrated and is mainly due to the EU's internal divisions. Secondly, Russia's potential leverage is undermined by its high dependence on EU energy demand. Thirdly, its potential energy leverage is at least counterbalanced by other dimensions of asymmetrical interdependence outside the energy context. Explaining how geopolitical power-related explanations became dominant in the analysis of EU-Russia relations, this article refers both to structural changes in the energy market and also to new perceptions that resulted from a renewed geopolitical logic in early decisions over pipelines, changing attitudes as Russia grew stronger and the different nature of the energy markets in the EU and Russia. While geopolitical considerations may occasionally sneak in, the core of EU-Russia energy relations is still predominantly economic and commercial.

Salomé!! Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, and the Drama of Celebrity

Oscar Wilde'sSalome, composed in French in 1891, represents both an episode in the history of celebrity and a dramatization of celebrity's theatrical structure. The play first entered the orbit of stardom when Sarah Bernhardt, internationally hailed as the world's greatest actress, agreed to play the title role in 1892; its author had long been a celebrity, known as much for his artfully crafted persona as for his published writings. Bernhardt, Wilde, andSalome, a play in which almost every character is both fan and idol, were all defined by the volatile conjunctions shared by theatricality and celebrity: the asymmetrical interdependence of actors and audiences, stars and acolytes, exhibition and attention, distance and proximity, absolutism and democracy, exemplarity and impudence, worship and desecration, and presence and representation.

International interdependence and regulatory power: Authority, mobility, and markets

This article revisits a fundamental question of international political economy: when does cross-border economic interdependence become a source of power. The view that economic interdependence is a source of potential power, not just mutual benefits, has a long lineage traceable to political realism, organizational economics, Ricardian trade theory, and structural Marxism, and researchers typically focus on preferred causal variables in isolation. Despite important contributions, little attention has been paid to understanding the interactions of multiple perspectives on asymmetric interdependence, or to making sense of contradictory expectations of the various models. As a consequence scholars engaged in globalization debates, such as those about policy convergence or private actor governance, frequently talk past one another. To deduce expectations about the relationship between power and interdependence, we build a model synthesizing standard approaches that analyze the effects of market size and market scope separately, and then add the critical variable of jurisdictional boundaries. By decoupling geography and authority, our analysis produces a respecification of classic interdependence models and advances core international political economy debates concerning power dynamics in a globalized economy.

The Central and Eastern European model of capitalism

This article addresses the question of how the institutions of the new EU member states match with the institution types previously worked out for the old member states, and whether they resemble any of the broadly accepted four models of capitalism (Anglo-Saxon, Nordic, Continental European and Mediterranean) or represent a new type of model. Amable's work was regarded as the starting point of this study, which underpinned the existence of the four models with statistical analysis. As for the new member states, our cluster analysis indicated that a new, fifth model of Central and Eastern Europe could be determined. The characteristics of the Central and Eastern European model may be derived from three main factors: the lack of capital, weak civil society and the impact of the European Union and other international organisations influencing the new member states. Also owing to these factors, a special division of labour has developed between the old and the new, post-communist member states since the systemic change two decades ago, in which the present asymmetric interdependency can be long-lasting. This could also make the Lisbon-type strategies, which aim to develop the European integration into a set of innovation-driven economies, illusory in the long run.

To Adopt or Not to Adopt: Explaining Selective Rule Transfer under the European Neighbourhood Policy

The dominant explanation for limited rule transfer under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) is its weak incentive structure, in particular the absence of a membership perspective. However, a certain rule transfer has occurred, albeit in a strikingly selective and uneven way. This article formulates an alternative model for explaining the variance in rule transfer under the ENP. Refuting conditionality and asymmetrical interdependence as having insufficient explanatory value, rule transfer is explained on the basis of three interrelated factors. First, the usefulness of ENP provisions for domestic agendas. Secondly, the process of active legitimacy‐seeking with the EU, driven by the subjective perception of accession prospects. Thirdly, the institutional design of the ENP itself, in particular its differentiated approach and lack of finality, which give the policy a strong political character.

Chindia in the context of emerging cultural and media powers

This essay aims to put the relationship of China and India – Chindia – in the context of other emerging cultural and media powers in a somewhat, but far from completely, transformed world or global system. It examines their globalization in terms of Appadurai’s (1990) set of landscapes and of asymmetrical interdependence (Straubhaar, 1991). It explores their relations with the existing core powers, with each other, and with other less developed nations and cultures.

The interdependence between China and the United States: a two-level analysis

Abstract This paper constructs a two-level model to explain China–U.S. relations. We find that at the state level, the interdependence between China and the United States, which comes from their bilateral trade and foreign direct investment, is asymmetric. Such asymmetric interdependence favors the United States in pushing the Chinese government to make concessions when they have conflicts. However, at the society level, China can penetrate into American society to intervene or influence American foreign policymaking. In this paper, it is argued that the outcome of China–U.S. relations is determined not only by the asymmetric interdependence at the state level or societal penetration respectively, but also by the interaction of these two factors in the process. Finally, the new development of China–U.S. relations since the inauguration of the Obama administration is also examined.

Unequal Contest: Iranian Nuclear Proliferation Between Economic and Value Symmetry

The showdown with Iran on the nuclear issue may well be one of the most influential crises in the post-cold war era. Prevailing theories of asymmetrical interdependence, the backbone of orthodox understandings of globalization and post-modern cooperation, foster the expectation that Iran should comply with UN demands and stop its uranium enrichment programme. Why is Iran not backing down on its nuclear aspirations, despite its asymmetrical interdependence? In this article, we draw on the neo-liberal insights of R. Harrison Wagner to argue that contrary to conventional assumptions, asymmetrical interdependence is not enough for predicting bargaining outcomes. Rather, it is essential to ask how much the targeted state values the goods that it is being asked to forgo. Drawing on this central observation, Iran's non-compliance is much easier to explain, as are the most effective courses of action to deal with it. Iran is non-compliant, despite orthodox neo-liberal assumptions, because it values its nuclear options more than the costs being imposed on it, and likely to be further imposed, from non-compliance. This perspective suggests that policies based on manipulation of asymmetrical economic interdependence are unlikely to succeed. Outside actors must change the paradigm of the past 20 years, taking Iran's high resolve into account. The carrot-or-stick package must find carrots that are lucrative enough, and threats that are credible enough, to convey the high costs of non-compliance and the benefits of cooperation.

Interactive Actor Analysis for Rural Water Management in The Netherlands: An Application of the Transactional Approach

Recent developments in the policy sciences emphasize the social environment in which decisions are made. The ‘network metaphor’ is often used to describe the key role of interactions between interdependent actors involved in decision making. These interactions take place in a policy arena drawn up by actors with an interest in and control over decisions on the issues addressed. Interdependencies, caused by the need for actors to increase their means of realizing objectives, are the driving force behind these interactions. Dependency relations are of special interest to water management and river basin management because of the fundamental asymmetrical interdependencies that exist in river basins between upstream and downstream stakeholders. Coleman’s linear system of action models decision making process involving dependencies between multiple stakeholders as exchange of control over issues, while interactions are required to negotiate exchanges of control. We developed an interactive method for actor analysis based on Coleman’s linear system of action and applied it to the national rural water management policy domain in The Netherlands. The method is firmly rooted in mathematical sociology and defies the criticism that methods for actor and stakeholder analysis do not specify a theoretical basis explaining the causal relations between the variables analyzed and policy change. With the application to the rural water management policy arena we intended to increase our insight into the practical applicability of this analytic method in an interactive workshop, the acceptability of the approach for the participating actors, its contribution to the process of decision making and our understanding of the rural water management policy arena in The Netherlands. We found that the Association of Water Authorities, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Agriculture are the most powerful actor in the policy domain, while governance and cost and benefits of rural water management are the most salient issues. Progress in policy development for rural water management is probably most promising for the issues governance, costs and benefits, safety and rural living conditions through improved interaction between the Association of Water Authorities, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Rural Credit Bank. Besides these analytic results the interactive approach implemented increased the participants understanding of their dependency on other actors in the rural water management policy domain and supported them in developing a sound perspective on their dependency position. We concluded that the method developed is acceptable to real-world policy decision makers, can successfully be applied in an interactive setting, potentially contributes to the process of decision making by increasing the participants understanding of their dependency position, has the potential to delivers valuable advice for future decision-making and increases our understanding of policy development for rural water management in general.

Asymmetric Interdependence and the Influence of Input and Outcome Feedback on Collaboration

This paper experimentally investigates the effect of different types of feedback (input versus outcome) and different types of asymmetric interdependence (input versus outcome) on the cooperation of different business units. We show that feedback that focusses on the asymmetric aspect of the relation decreases cooperation severely. More specific, if one partner has to put more inputs in the relationship than the other, this inequality is highlighted by input feedback which creates fairness frictions. Similarly, if one partners earns a higher outcome from the relation than the other, outcome feedback exposes this inequality which decreases cooperation. Consequently, company headquarters or alliance partners should be aware that distributing information towards respectively lower units or each other can decrease cooperation due to equality considerations. Our results indicate that the type of feedback interacts with relational characteristics such as the type of asymmetric interdependence. Consequently, besides the informational properties studied in prior literature, we identified another characteristic of performance measures can impact its appropriateness for evaluating business units. In addition, we highlight the importance of taking into account the structure of the relationship to decide on the information that is dispersed to govern the relationship. Our experiment shows that information should highlight the symmetric aspects of the relation in order to improve cooperation.

Twelve theses on the role of human capital and education in development

Economic development has always been primarily determined by the human factor, the so-called “human capital” improved by education. In the contemporary world economy characterized by asymmetrical interdependencies and the worldwide networking of transnational companies promoting globalization, the very position and economic development of countries depends also on those competitive advantages created by their governments and social actors, which imply favourable conditions for the rise locally, and/or the inflow from abroad, of transnational companies. Among such “created competitive advantages” the most decisive one is the availability of well-educated, skilled, innovative and disciplined manpower (whose productivity as compared to their wage cost is high enough for increase in profitability), and of local R&D capacities, so important for the transnational companies when choosing their “home base”. Consequently, investments in education and science are the most productive and profitable ones. The commodity pattern of trade is also shaped accordingly, while the type of specialization itself influences education and the dissemination of knowledge in the economy.

Introduction to the special issue: Dual-career couples

Dual career couples are experiencing a renewed attention by researchers for at least three different reasons. Firstly, the increasing women's labour force participation throughout the family formation years, particularly among well educated women, opens the question whether something has changed both in gender arrangements within couples and in career patterns in the labour market and particularly in the im- permeability of the glass ceiling that used to block women's upward mobility. Se- condly, when both partners in a household invest in paid work the question arises concerning who is going to do all the unpaid work otherwise performed by women, for the household but also for kin and sometimes community. What is the quality of life of households, communities, societies in a world where all adults invest most of their energies in paid work? Thirdly, the divergent patterns of women's labour force participation, together with the prevalence of homogamous marriages, raise con- cerns on the risks of a possible strengthening of social inequalities. As the interest for career couples remains fairly sustained and trespasses the boundaries of the sociology of the family within which has long remained confined, the dual career concept becomes however more elusive. Strictu senso, career couples should refer only to couples in which both partners are involved in an upward mobile professional trajectory (Hiller and Dyehouse 1987, Levy et al. in this issue). Neither all earner couples nor all the well-educated ones are necessarily also career ones in this sense. Clement and Clement (2001) add an additional requirement for being defined a career couple strictu senso: that of having children, that is of having caring responsibilities. According to their concept, there- fore, career couples are defined by the fact that both partners are highly quali- fied, and follow their career path while not renouncing having children and a satis- fying family life. On the basis of this narrow definition, the number of career couples might be quite small, and insufficient for a quantitative research approach. Furthermore, while research on career couples focuses mainly on the couple's dynamics and more or less asymmetrical interdependencies, the possibility that one or both the partner have a career does not depend only on negotiations and power relations within the couple, that is on its gender culture and arrangements. It de- pends also on the labour market and on the institutional framework within which couples develop their negotiations and take their decisions. The labour market and

Mexico's Asymmetrical Interdependence: Beyond and After

Mexico's Asymmetrical Interdependence: Beyond and After

Inside the Sending State: The Politics of Mexican Emigration Control

The social science of international migration has generally ignored labor emigration control policies. In the critical case of Mexico, however, the central government consistently tried to control the volume, duration, skills, and geographic origin of emigrants from 1900 to the early 1970s. A neopluralist approach to policy development and implementation shows that the failure of emigration control and the current abandonment of serious emigration restrictions are explained by a combination of external constraints, imposed by a highly asymmetrical interdependence with the United States, and internal constraints, imposed by actors within the balkanized Mexican state who recurrently undermined federal emigration policy through contradictory local practices.

The Mexicanization of the US-Canada Border

INTRODUCTIONIt is perhaps paradoxical that the prominence of borders and border controls in North America has sharply increased in an era otherwise defined by the breaking down of borders through continental economic integration. Indeed, borders and border control politics define the relations between the NAFTA (North American free trade agreement) partners.' What began as US drug and immigration control anxieties, mostly focused southward, have now been extended northward, as US border security worries have shifted in the post-9/11 era to focus on the potential entry of terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. The result, I argue, has been a partial of the US-Canada border and cross-border relations. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Canada has experienced the kind of intense US political scrutiny and alarmed media attention that has long been familiar to Mexico. The politicization of the border has unsettled the traditional special US-Canada relationship and brought to an end what had been a mutually convenient low-maintenance approach to border control matters.The Canadian government has attempted to resist and reverse the Mexicanization process, making great efforts (with some success) to differentiate and distance Canada from Mexico. Yet despite how very different the two countries are in most respects, they inescapably have something profoundly important in common: both have a long and porous border that is increasingly viewed as a security concern by the United States, and both are increasingly dependent on keeping their border open economically. After the US border security crackdowns following the 9/11 attacks, Canada and Mexico have become more painfully aware of the risks and vulnerabilities that have come with asymmetric interdependence: they are far more economically tied to and dependent on the United States than the other way around, and thus are much more vulnerable to security-related disruptions in cross-border flows. This growing asymmetry, which has deepened and accelerated under NAFTA, is the underlying material context that structures their relations with the United States, limiting and constraining their policy options and giving Washington substantial leverage.2 In the following pages, I trace the changing practice and politics of US-Canada border controls, arguing that the politicization of the US-Canada border has taken on some of the characteristics of US-Mexico border relations. While enormous differences between the two borders remain, what is most striking (and most disturbing for many Canadians) are their growing similarities.DEPOLITICIZED US-CANADA BORDER CONTROLS IN THE PRE-9/11 ERAUS-Canada border controls during most of the 20th century can be characterized as low-intensity, low-profile, and a low priority.3 Border control issues rarely took centre stage in bilateral relations. This minimalist and low-visibility approach to border policing was mutually convenient and tolerated, and persisted into the 19905.4 The boom in legal commercial flows across the border in the post-NAFTA era overshadowed illegal flows, including the smuggling of drugs, cigarettes, migrants, and arms. The clandestine side of the expanding US-Canada trading relationship was largely kept out of the national political spotlight and never turned into a significant source of cross-border tension. Both countries exercised mutual restraint to avoid politicizing illegal border crossings while at the same time expanding and deepening cross-border law enforcement cooperation. Thus, at the same time as Washington frequently chastised Mexico for being the primary trans-shipment point for cocaine entering the United States, Ottawa quietly accepted the fact that the United States was the primary trans-shipment point for cocaine entering Canada (loud complaints would probably do little good anyway). Moreover, the United States was the primary source of unregistered arms in Canada, which many Canadians considered a security threat but grudgingly accepted as the price of living next to the world's largest arms producer-a country glutted with arms and regulated by much looser gun control laws. …

Time-related interdependence between low-frequency cortical electrical activity and respiratory activity in lizard,Gallotia galloti

Electroencephalograms of medial cortex and electromyograms of intercostal muscles (EMG-icm) were simultaneously recorded in the lizard, Gallotia galloti, during two daily time periods (at daytime, DTP: 1200-1600 h; by night, NTP: 0000-0400 h), to investigate whether a relationship exists between the respiratory and cortical electrical activity of reptiles, and, if so, how this relationship changes during the night rest period. Testing was carried out by studying interdependence between cortical electrical and respiratory activities, by means of linear and nonlinear signal analysis techniques. Both physiological activities were evaluated through simultaneous power signals, derived from the power of the low-frequency band of the electroencephalogram (pEEG-LF), and from the power of the EMG-icm (pEMG-icm), respectively. During both DTP and NTP, there was a significant coherence between both signals in the main frequency band of pEMG-icm. During both DTP and NTP, the nonlinear index N measured significant linear asymmetric interdependence between pEEG-LF and pEMG-icm. The N value obtained between pEEG-LF vs. pEMG-icm was greater than the one between pEMG-icm vs. pEEG-LF. This means that the system that generates the pEEG-LF is more complex than the one that generates the pEMG-icm, and suggests that the temporal variability of power in the low-frequency cortical electrical activity is driven by the power of the respiratory activity.

The Mexicanization of the Us-Canada Border: Asymmetric Interdependence in a Changing Security Context

The Mexicanization of the Us-Canada Border: Asymmetric Interdependence in a Changing Security Context

Alliance Fatigue amid Asymmetrical Interdependence: Sino-North Korean Relations in Flux

Abstract For more than four decades, China has been commonly recognized as North Korea's closest patron—it has served as a conduit for communication between the major regional powers and the “Hermit Kingdom,” a political and diplomatic protector of the neighboring socialist brethren, and an indispensable source of economic support. But the more important strategic glue binding the two countries has been the “Sino-North Korean Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance” of 1961. However, since its reform and open-door policy in 1978, China has pursued a different set of strategies and directions for its national development, only to witness an ever-widening gap between its national interests and North Korea. The Sino-North Korean alliance has been redefined from a traditional alliance of “lips-to-teeth” to an alliance of asymmetrical interdependence. Unambiguous signs of future changes in their relationship include: China's active and immediate diplomatic involvement in dealing with North Korea's renewed nuclear threat since 2003; its unusually public academic arguments for the redefinition of the Sino-North Korean alliance; and its intentional redeployment of the People's Liberation Army for sealing the Sino-North Korean border.