Foreword

Times of profound systemic change, while often exhilarating, can also bring insecurity and doubt. Nevertheless, discontinuities allow us to explore new perspectives on familiar problems. The SAIS Review has, in recent issues, reflected the expanding arena of international affairs by focusing on themes such as technology, the environment, and urbanization. With this issue, we turn to two themes illustrating the possibilities inherent in change. Rapid global integration has deep economic, political, and social implications, which scholars are only now examining critically. Secondly, the problems of Africa, long considered unresolvable, are now being reassessed with more hope and greater vigor.

Saskia Sassen examines state transformation as a consequence of the integrating transnational economic system. As both agents of change and its victims, states face new challenges in defining their role. Nowhere is this more evident than in immigration policy, where legal innovation has not kept pace with economic and political change. Sassen highlights the need to reconceptualize immigration itself and the state’s response to it.

Philip Gordon reviews European integration and lays out alternative scenarios for the next ten years. A Europe unified by a single currency and well-functioning political institutions will be an easier partner for the United States than a continent unable to address structural obstacles to high unemployment, mired in economic stagnation, and confronted with right-wing, populist backlash.

Miguel Rodrigues Mendoza and Barbara Kotschwar explore the pace and scope of Latin American trade agreements. While many traditional economic theorists view regional integration as an impediment to the ideal of global free trade, Mendoza and Kotschwar argue that in Latin America it has actually contributed to increased trade, both within the region and with the rest of the world. Shalendra Sharma explores the degree to which the World Trade Organization has addressed developing countries’ traditional concerns about global economic integration in an effort to bring them into the system and lay the foundation for increased economic growth worldwide.

Our second theme deals with the present reassessment of Africa’s place in the emerging world order. There is growing consensus that private sector development holds the key to ending Africa’s dependence on foreign aid. Callisto Madavo and Jean-Louis Sarbib, the World Bank’s vice-presidents for Africa, highlight the positive role of policy reform, improved debt management, and growing investor confidence in removing impediments to attracting private capital. But investors are increasingly savvy and carefully scrutinize foreign markets before risking their capital. As Paul Bennell points out, economic and policy fundamentals in many African countries remain inadequate to attract sufficient quantities of foreign direct investment. As a result, it remains unevenly distributed among countries and sectors. Michael Isimbabi discusses the development of well-functioning stockmarkets as a key element in creating prosperity.

Adekeye Adebajo and Michael O’Hanlon introduce another dimension African stability and development. The proposed African Rapid Reaction Force would protect civilians from the ravages of war. Philippe Vasset highlights the changing role of France’s long-time involvement in Africa’s military affairs and suggests that this engagement too is up for reconsideration.

Robert Freedman reminds us that certain players on the global stage remain of concern, even at times of great change. Russia and Iran occupy prominent places in the collective psyche of the US foreign policy establishment. The durability of their evolving alliance is therefore of great concern to Washington policymakers.

We are very proud that one of the United States’ most prominent and experienced ambassadors, J. Stapleton Roy, has contributed a “letter from Jakarta.” Indonesia’s current prosperity has led to pressure for economic and political reform, pressures which must be watched carefully, lest they explode.

Finally, we conclude this issue with a revised book review section. Henceforth, we will include a literature review pertinent to one of the issue’s main themes, and a guest reviewer’s analysis of a timely book. Mark Miller examines three recent books on migration, and Jonathan Landay, who covered the former Yugoslavia for The Christian Science Monitor, reviews Genocide after Emotion: the Post-Emotional Balkan War.

The SAIS Review is one of a handful of international affairs journals run entirely by graduate students...