TRANSNATIONAL ECONOMIC PROCESSES 379 ings which are highlighted in this volume.Alternatively,the pattern of inter- actions can be specified at a systemic level which would isolate a set of activi- ties analytically separable from the nation-state focus.Although an ideal long- run goal,this would require the definition of a theoretical framework which is beyond the scope of this essay,and it would carry the discussion far from its focus of transnational economic activities.Instead,I have chosen to treat both the general trends in economic activities and the controversial debate over them through a discussion of developments in international economic interdependence. Although it can lead such a discussion astray,a focus on international eco- nomic interdependence is central to a discussion of transnational economic processes.Transnational processes and international interdependence refer,in effect,to overlapping sets of phenomena.Interdependent behavior may be understood in terms of the outcome of specified actions of two or more parties (individuals,governments,corporations,etc.)when such actions are mutually contingent.These parties,then,are interdependent with respect to specific issue areas and not to the whole spectrum of their activities.None of the ac- tions involved is understood to be fixed.Nor need they be consciously per- ceived as mutually contingent or dependent,although such perception would be necessary if interdependence was to be manipulated by one or more of the parties involved.In this sense strategic interaction would be a subset of inter- dependence and would involve specified goal-oriented behavior on the part of at least two parties. Interdependence as defined above need not involve transnational processes. For example,the security of two states may involve a set of interdependent relationships but also involve no nongovernmental actors and therefore not necessarily be transnational.Similarly,transnational activities could exist with- out affecting the level of interdependence among certain groups.I presume this to be frequently the case with such less-tangible phenomena as ideolo- 14 There are other definitions which have been offered for "interdependence."Each has a different focus and therefore gives rise to different sets of questions.This one focuses on state actions and conse- quently lends itsclf to questions regarding the ability of a state's leadership to attain its objectives and its level of control over activities both within and beyond its borders.Interdependence has also been defined in systemic terms and in terms of the growth of political output or political goods. In systemic terms,for example,interdependence has been defined "in terms of the extent to which events occurring in any given part or within any given component unit of a world system affect (either physically or perceptually)events taking place in each of the other parts or component units of the system."Young,International Journal,Vol.24,No.4,p.726.This definition Iends itsclf to the formu- lation of hypotheses about the systemic effects of increases (or decreases)in the levels of interdependence: "The higher the ratio of interdependencics among the component units of a world system to inter- dependencies within the component units,the greater the proportion of any given unit's resources that will be devoted to external affairs."Ibid,p.741. In tcrms of political goods or "public goods"(those goods which,if consumed by any single member of a group,cannot feasibly be withheld from other members of the group)interdependence would be defined as a function of the scope and number of political goods produced in a group.See,for example, Norman Frohlich and Joe Oppenheimer,"Entrepreneurial Politics and Foreign Policy,"World Politics, forthcoming