Editors' Note

Editors’Note T h i s issue of International Security begins with three articles that examine the explanatory power of realism and other international relations theories. I f is an article of faith among most Western policymakers and many international relations theorists that international institutions are important sources of stability in world affairs: if is widely believed that international institutions promote peace. In a powerftrl and provocative assessment of three leading “institutionalist“ theories-libera1 institutionalism, collective security, and critical theory-John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago contends that institutions do not affect the prospects for war and peace in significant ways. All three theories are flawed, he argues, and there is remarkably little empirical evidence to support the claim that institutions affect state behavior. Both proponents and detractors of realism characterize if as being pessimistic about the prospects for international cooperation. Realism, it is said, depicts a world of stark and harsh competition, and holds out little promise of changing the world and making it more peaceful. Charles Glaser of the University of Chicago maintains that this pessimism is unwarranted. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, he argues that realism properly understood predicts that, under a wide range of conditions,adversaries can best achieve their security goals through cooperative policies rather than competitive ones. Many scholars contend that the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe, the .breakup of the Soviet Union,and the end of the Cold War confound realism’s expectations and call info question realism’s relevance for understanding the post-Cold War zuorld. William Wohlforthof Princeton Universityargues that reports of realism’s death aregreatly exaggerated: realist theories, he argues,were not invalidated by the profound changes that took place in the international system in the late 1980sand early 1990s; on the contrary, he claims, they explain muck of the story. In a thoughtful and thorough examination of Serbian behavior and the evolution of the Yugoslav conflict, Vl? Gagnon, Jr., of the Peace Studies Program at Cornell University asserts that the conflict was not caused by ancient ethnic hatreds or by external security concerns. Instead, he contends, if was driven by domestic politics, and, in particular, by the competitionfor power among Serbian leaders. The war, which was characterized domestically as a struggle for survival against external ethnic enemies, in fact has its origins in the struggle for domestic political power. Ethnic conflict was provoked by those members of the ruling Serbian communist party who Internatiomd Security, Winter 1994/95 (Vol. 19, No. 3) 0 1995 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 3 International Security 19:3 1 4 were most threatened by prospective changes to the domestic order. War, they hoped, would deflect demands for radical change and allow them to reposition themselves and survive politically. Frans Berkhout of the University of Sussex, Oleg Bukharin and Harold Feiveson of Princeton University, and Marvin Miller of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology argue that a cutoff in the production of fissile material is both essential and urgently needed. In a systematic analysis of this issue, they examine the status of nuclear programs in key countries, the advantages and disadvantages of alternative courses of action, the verification problems that would surround a formal cutoff of fissile material production, and potential solutions. NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS International Security welcomes submissions on all aspects of security affairs. Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, with notes double-spaced at the end. There is no maximum or minimum length, but 5,UOU-1O,UOO words is appropriate. Tofacilitate review, authors should provide three copies with a brief abstract, refrain from identifiing themselves in their manuscripts, and follow the International Security style sheet, availablefrom the journal‘s editorial offices. See the “Guidefor Contributors” published in the Fall 1992 issue. ...