Abstract
The task of this chapter is to examine and to reach some conclusion about the relationship between spheres of influence and international order. There are three aspects of this relationship which need to be taken into account: (i) How spheres of influence contribute to order in general; (ii) whether spheres of influence contribute to order in relations between influencing powers, and (iii) whether there is order in the relations between states within a sphere of influence and between such states and the power that influences them. At the same time it must be asked of each of these whether, even if spheres of influence have contributed to order, there are reasons for thinking they might in future lead to disorder. But what in any case is international order? By way of establishing a focus for the remainder of the chapter the first part presents a definition of order. The second part goes into the three aspects of the relationship mentioned between spheres of influence and international order. The third part raises some questions about the limitations of spheres of influence as devices of order.
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Notes and References
The discussion of order in this section and the definition adopted owe much to both Hedley Bull and John Vincent, though neither may agree with what is said here. See H.N. Bull, ‘Order vs. justice in international society’, Political Studies, vol. XIX, no. 3, (Sept. 1971) and his more recent The Anarchical Society (London: Macmillan, 1977).
Also R.J. Vincent, Non-intervention and International Order (Princeton University Press, 1974).
See S. Hoffmann (ed.), Conditions of World Order (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1968) p. 2.
H.L.A. Hart, The Concept of Law (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970) pp. 187–95.
Quincy Wright, The Role of International Law in the Elimination of War (Manchester University Press, 1961) p. 7.
See for instance, H. Magdoff, The Age of Imperialism: the Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Modern Reader Paperbacks, 1969) passim.
R. Jenkins, Exploitation, The World Power Structure and Inequality of Nations (London: Paladin, 1971) p. 84. On dependence generally see Magdoff, op. cit.; J. Galtung, ‘A structural theory of imperialism’, Journal of Peace Research, 3 (1971)
A.G. Frank, Capitalism and Under-development (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971)
P. Baran and P.M. Sweezy, Monopoly Capital (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968)
S. Amin, Accumulation on a World Scale (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974) 2 vols.
S. Amin, Imperialism and Unequal Development (London: Harvester Press, 1978)
and R. Pettman, State and Class (London: Croom Helm, 1980).
On aid see T. Hayter, Aid as Imperialism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971) passim.
On trade see A. Emmanuel, Unequal Exchange, A Study of the Imperialism of Trade (London: New Left Books, 1972) passim.
M.B. Brown, The Economics of Imperialism (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1974), pp. 292–304.
S. Lindquist, The Shadow: Latin America Faces the Seventies (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972) pp. 212–66. On the same theme see H. Hveem, ‘The global dominance system’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 10, no. 4 (1973).
Cited by A.M. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (London: Deutsch, 1965) p. 674.
Cited by Ronald Steel, Pax Americana (New York: The Viking Press, 1967) p. 328.
See also Stanley Hoffmann, ‘Weighing the balance of power’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 50, no. 4 (July 1972). For criticism of Steel, see Pierre Hassner, ‘Spheres of what?: an exchange’, Foreign Policy, no. 6 (Spring 1972) pp. 142–49.
Martin Wight, ‘The balance of power’, in H. Butterfield and M. Wight (eds.), Diplomatic Investigations (London: Allen & Unwin, 1966) pp. 149–75.
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© 1983 Paul Ernest Keal
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Keal, P. (1983). International Order and Spheres of Influence. In: Unspoken Rules and Superpower Dominance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06224-9_9
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