play a great deal of resilience.States still have a wide really is happening.The state has lost its"monopoly range of choice.Most states survive,and the units that over internal sovereignty,"Wolfgang H.Reinecke writes. survive in competitive systems are those with the ability and as "an externally sovereign actor"it "will become a to adapt.Some do it well.and they grow and prosper. thing of the past"(1997.137:cf.,Thurow 1999).Inter- Others just manage to get along.That's the way it is in nally,the state's monopoly has never been complete.but competitive systems.In this spirit.Ezra Taft Benson. it seems more nearly so now than carlier.at least in when he was President Eisenhower's secretary of agricul- well-established states.The range of governmental func- ture,gave this kindly advice to America's small farmers: tions and the extent of state control over society and "Get big or get out."Success in competitive systems re- economy has seldom been fuller than it is now.In many quires the units of the system to adopt ways they would parts of the world the concern has been not with the prefer to avoid. state's diminished internal powers but with their in- States adapt to their environment.Some are light crease.And although state control has lessened some afoot,and others are heavy.The United States looked to what recently,does anyone believe that the United be heavy afoot in the 1980s when Japan's economy was States and Britain.for example,are back to a 1930s booming.Sometimes it seemed that MITI(Ministry of level,let alone to a nineteenth-century level of govern- International Trade and Industry)was manned by ge- mental regulation? niuses who guided Japan's economy effortlessly to its States perform essential political social-economic func- impressive accomplishments.Now it is the United States tions.and no other organization appears as a possible that appears light afoot,lighter than any other country. competitor to them.They foster the institutions that Its government is open:Accurate financial information make internal peace and prosperity possible.In the state flows freely,most economic decisions are made by pri- of nature,as Kant put it,there is "no mine and thine. vate firms.These are the characteristics that make for States turn possession into property and thus make sav- flexibility and for quick adaptation to changing condi- ing,production,and prosperity possible.The sovereign tions. state with fixed borders has proved to be the best organi- Competitive systems select for success.Over time,the zation for keeping peace and fostering the conditions for qualities that make for success vary.Students of Ameri- economic well being.'We do not have to wonder what can government point out that one of the advantages of happens to society and economy when a state begins to a federal system is that the separate states can act as fade away.We have all too many examples.A few obvi- laboratories for social-economic experimentation.When ous ones are China in the 1920s and 30s and again in some states succeed,others may imitate them.The same the 1960s and '70s.post-Soviet Russia.and many African thought applies to nations.One must wonder who the states since their independence.The less competent a next winner will be. state,the likelier it is to dissolve into component parts or States adapt;they also protect themselves.Different to be unable to adapt to transnational developments. nations,with distinct institutions and traditions.protect Challenges at home and abroad test the mettle of states themselves in different ways.Japan fosters industries. Some states fail.and other states pass the tests nicely.In defends them.and manages its trade.The United States modern times,enough states always make it to keep the uses its political,economic,and military leverage to pro- international system going as a system of states.The tect itself and manipulate international events to pro- challenges vary:states endure.They have proved to be mote its interests.Thus,as David E.Spiro elaborately hardy survivors shows.international markets and institutions did not re- Having asked how international conditions affect cycle petrodollars after states.I now reverse the question and ask how states 1974.The United affect the conduct of international political affairs. States did.Despite Because technologi- many statements to the contrary.the United cal innovation is The State in International Politics States worked effec- rapid,and because tively through different Economic globalization would mean tht the world administrations and economic conditions economy.or at least the globalized portion of it,would under different cabinet be integrated and not merely interdependent.The differ- at home and abroad secretaries to under- ence between an interdependent and an integrated world mine markets and change often,states is a qualitative one and not a mere matter of proportion- thwart international ately more trade and a greater and more rapid flow of institutions.Its lever- that adapt easily capital.With integration,the world would look like one age enabled it to ma- have considerable big state.Economic markets and economic interests can- nipulate the oil crisis not perform the functions of government.Integration to serve its own inter- advantages requires or presumes a government to protect,direct. ests (1999,chap.6). and control.Interdependence,in contrast to integration. Many of the interde- is"the mere mutualism"of states.as Emile Durkheim penders of the 1970s expected the state to wither and put it.It is not only less close than usually thought but fade away.Charles Kindleberger wrote in 1969 that"the also politically less consequential.Interdependence did nation-state is just about through as an economic unit' not produce the world-shaking events of 1989-91.A po- (207).Globalizers of the 1990s believe that this time it litical event.the failure of one of the world's two great PSOnline www.apsanet.org 697 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.Further reproduction prohibited without permission.Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission