World Resources 1987 (review)

240 SAIS REVIEW the United States, unless by overstating its vital interests America alienates the Third World in responding to each potential Soviet encroachment. The basic tenet of The Future ofAmerican Strategy, that the United States must come to terms with what Eisenhower called the "great equation" — how to balance the budget and maintain adequate defenses— is sound. The book represents a distillation of the viewpoints of many of the United States' most celebrated strategic thinkers, with an additional twist thrown in by Hendrickson. The author makes much of his rejection of alternatives proposed by the Left and Right. In charting this course of moderation, Hendrickson tends to oversimplify arguments from both sides of the political spectrum and to assume greater cohesion among Left and Right than exists on such a broad and complicated issue as the United States' strategic position in the world. The product is an interesting assessment of America's strategic alternatives, reflective of the country's own tentative probing of security policies for the next decade. World Resources 1987. Edited by Donald Hinrichsen, for The International Institute for Environment and Development and The World Resources Institute. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1987. 369 pp. $16.95/paper. Reviewed by Taryn Toro-Agee, M.A. candidate, SAIS. The condition of the environment and the availability of natural resources affect nearly every field of domestic and international policy. National defense planners must count on secure supplies of energy, raw materials, and healthy manpower, while also continuously reevaluating the costs to the global resource base incurred by the deployment and maintenance of increasingly complex weapons. Are the environmental costs of defense strategy consistent with the ends of global stability and security? Economic policymakers as well,in both developed and developing countries, require information on their nations' domestic natural resource and manpower endowments and environmental constraints. Diplomatic negotiations often touch on, or are directly concerned with, environmental and natural resource issues. Academics, citizens, and students engaged in policy analysis also need factual data to evaluate specific policies. World Resources 1987 is at least as successful as its pioneering older sibling , World Resources 1986, in providing vital data. The final section of each four-part volume contains an extensive collection of data tables that can be used to address a variety of natural resources, environmental, trade, and economic questions. The series is truly global. Most of the data tables present information for 146 countries. Explanations are given for absent, inconclusive, or suspect data. World Resources 1987 not only updates but also expands the collection of tabular data contained in World Resources 1986. The World Resources series is not simply an annual release of natural resources and environmental quality data. In each of the two existing volumes, the data tables are preceded by three sections that layer expository meat on BOOK REVIEWS 241 the quantitative skeleton in the final section. The data tables state what is, while the expository sections aim to explain why. Each volume begins with "Part I — Perspectives." The content of this section changes annually. Here the editor sets a theme to help the reader approach an intimidating amount of interconnected information. Part II, entitled "World Resources Reviews," monitors the state of the global natural resource base and the environment. This section is subdivided into chapters devoted to different natural resources and environmental sectors, such as "Population and Health," "Forests and Rangelands," and "Energy." Although the subjects emphasized in each chapter change annually, consistent attention is devoted to the main trends pertinent to that particular sector. Part III, entitled "World Resources Issues," focuses on complex issues critical to the future health and development of the global environment and resource base. The approach in Part III is realistic rather than pessimistic: a chapter from the 1987 volume, "Elements of Success : Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa," provides evidence that solutions to natural resource and environmental dilemmas exist. Although World Resources 1987 addresses issues that are often emotional, it avoids the shrill political and ideological rhetoric that frequently characterizes environmental, natural resources, trade, and development debates. Pragmatism and relatively evenhanded objectivity lend credence to World Resources messages. Although it is intended to be part of a series, World Resources 1987 can...