After Authority: War, Peace, and Global Politics in the 21st Century

Notes

183 Notes Chapter 1. Theory of Global Politics 1. This is what happened in the old Soviet Bloc; today, it is taking place, as well, in the West. 2. I realize that the first date is arguable. I am using poetic license here. 3. Statements by former Soviet general Alexander Lebed, in September 1997, that one hundred nuclear “suitcase bombs” have gone missing in Russia can only further stir up fears along these lines. It is puzzling, however, that if they are truly unaccounted for, why none have turned up in the hands of miscreants. Are they, perhaps, in the possession of the United States? Chapter 2. The Worries of Nations 1. Not everyone takes a dim view of the workhouses. Gertrude Himmelfarb (1995), for example, believes that ending the Poor Laws made people responsible for their individual well-being and fate. The concept of family solidarity has been examined by Francis Fukuyama (1995a, 1995b). 2. The Triffin Dilemma arose because U.S. dollars in the possession of foreign countries could be exchanged for gold. Unfortunately, by 1960, the 184 Notes United States did not hold enough gold to redeem all of the dollars in circulation abroad. Were the demand for gold to outstrip U.S. gold stocks, the role of the dollar as an international reserve currency could be undermined or destroyed. 3. Again, it is important to recognize that the “self-regulating market” is a fiction; it must be supported by implicit or explicit agreements regarding rules of operation (Attali, 1997). 4. A conventional security-based account can be found in Gaddis (1982; 1987). An economic account is Pollard (1985). A revisionist economistic account can be found in McCormick (1996). A sophisticated and insightful analysis of the process discussed is Gill (1993: esp. 30–34). 5. In essence, this is the core of the so-called Washington consensus, the increasingly popular argument that democracies do not go to war with each other. For a critical assessment of this claim, see Mansfield and Snyder (1995). 6. The dollar was exchangeable for gold at the rate of $35/ounce. Americans could not hold gold bullion and only governments could officially request gold for their dollars. At this rate of exchange, Fort Knox held about $10 billion in gold. 7. Charles Tilly said “The state made war and war made the state.” After World War II, the state made Cold War and Cold War made the state. 8. This was not the only reason underlying the extension of civil rights to African Americans and the implementation of affirmative action, of course. There was also a fear of urban revolt and a desire to show the world that the United States did not oppress its minorities. 9. This continues to be the case today, as evidence by the high proportion of non-U.S. citizens receiving doctorates in scientific and engineering fields. According to Joseph Nye and William Owens (1996:29), “American higher education draws some 450,000 foreign students each year.” 10. For example, the Soviet Union’s MIG fighters were as good or better than anything the United States had to offer, but its avionics used vacuum tubes rather than semiconductor devices. Tubes offered greater protection against the electromagnetic pulses associated with nuclear detonations , but the Soviets used them because they could not miniaturize the electronics. 11. The rise of the behavioralist model in the social sciences was part of this process, too. 12. To be entirely fair, Buchanan put the blame on free trade; that his analysis was, at best, partial and at worst, completely wrong, does not invalidate my argument here. 13. People might be offered equal opportunities to succeed, although even this is difficult to accomplish in practice. Even so, not everyone will seize those opportunities and succeed. Notes 185 14. A fascinating essay on the commodification of consumer shopping habits can be found in Gladwell (1996), “The Science of Shopping.” It is a simple matter to link the bar codes in a shopping cart to the name and address on the check or ATM card proffered in payment, enter them into a database, and sell the resulting information to the appropriate companies. 15. Stephen Kobrin (1997) argues that “e-money” poses a threat to the most fundamental perquisite of the state: taxation. Chapter 3. The Insecurity Dilemma 1. Although, as a graduate student project during the mid...