Michael B. Dolan

First World-Third World linkages: external relations and economic development

Recent efforts by North American social scientists to devise systematic empirical tests for a series of propositions purportedly drawn from structural theories of dependency have focused largely on the consequences of foreign economic linkages for the economies of developing countries. Although the results of these tests have been received with considerable skepticism by dependentistas and neo-positivists alike,1 cross-national, quantitative studies of the dependence-development relationship are not without value: they have focused research on a central problem, namely the effects of various forms of economic linkages on rates and types of economic development. This concentration of research activities, in particular the current spate of replications,2 has yielded new empirical knowledge concerning these relationships, plus some intriguing conflicting evidence. This is now sufficient to support further inquiry in itself, independent of the confines of dependencia theories which gave rise to the research originally. 3

Negotiating in the Ottawa process: The new multilateralism

The Ottawa Process is inexplicable in the context of conventional international relations. The process was driven by a nexus of NGO and state ‐ a ‘bottom up’ process compared to the Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) process and process represented by the Conference on Disarmament (CD). The states pushing the ban campaign were, for the most part, traditional followers rather than global leaders. According to Dolan and Hunt, a more sober assessment of the multilateral negotiation process reveals somewhat more ambiguity than supporters of the so‐called “multilateral innovative process” acknowledge. This ambiguity reflects the schizophrenic nature of multilateralism in the contemporary era. The authors examine the multilateralism underpinning the Ottawa Process and how the negotiations competed with the parallel, existing CCW process and the anti‐personnel mine discussions in the CD, in the months prior to the Oslo Diplomatic Conference in September 1997. Since the Ottawa Process could not have happened unde...

Asymmetrical Dyads and Foreign Policy

An analysis of Canadas foreign policy toward the United States from 1963 to 1972 is used in a test of a theory of foreign policies of subordinate states in asymmetrical dyads. In this theory the interaction of two conditions—the state of a nations economy and the extent of concentration in its linkages with a superordinate power, along with a set of conditioning environmental factors—are used to explain the foreign policy actions of the subordinate state. The findings confirm the importance of the two main exogenous factors and the environmental variables, but the interactive effect of economic performance and linkage concentration is not corroborated. In particular the statistical effects of the economic performance variable on the foreign policy indicators are positive where a negative sign was predicted.

Foreign Policy in Asymmetrical Dyads: Theoretical Reformulation and Empirical Analysis, Canada-United States Relations, 1963-1972

The results of a previous test of a theory of foreign policies of subordinate states in asymmetrical dyads conducted on Canada-United States relations in the 1963-72 period are used as a foundation for a modification of the original theory and a revised empirical test. In the reformulated theory, three conditions-the state of the economy of the superordinate and the subordinate nations, the extent of concentration in the latters linkages with the superordinate power, and a set of

European restructuring and import policies for a textile industry in crisis

In the last ten years, employment in the textile and clothing industry in the European Community has decreased by roughly one million workers. In the face of falling employment, profits, and investment, and of surplus capacity, business and labor have increasingly pressured state and European authorities for adjustment assistance and import protection. Although most industrialized countries face similar pressures, policy making in the member states of the European Economic Community is made difficult by the uneven development of the EEC, which regulates trade policy and state aids to industry and restricts business practices but which is not able to construct interventionist or structural policies. Further complicating the situation is the split between two groups of states that differ profoundly on whether the EEC should adopt a liberal trading, noninterventionist position or a protectionist trade policy combined with state aids to mitigate the economic and social effects of restructuring. Tracing these developments over the last ten years, I argue that contradictions in the European political economy in textiles have led to a protectionist bias in Community policies, notwithstanding important developments in outward processing as a means of restructuring.

Integration and Autonomy in Canada-United States Relations, 1963-1972

Theories of integration and dependence approach the phenomenon of international interdependence from opposite sides of the spectrum of relations between nations. Integration emphasizes voluntarism in the study of relations characterized by more or less symmetric interdependence, joint participation, and mutual benefits. Dependence, on the other hand, is concerned with asymmetric interdependence and the nonreciprocal reliance this engenders, with emphasis on coercion. These two streams of theorizing share a predilection for a unidirectional focus as they analyze the process by which integration or domination is achieved and maintained. The unidirectional focus in integration theory has been, in part, a reflection of the initial optimism and commitment toward integration in West Europe. Moreover, it was sustained by the concept of spillover, the core of functionalist integration thinking, which attributed a high degree of automaticity to the process of integration once underway. If it was optimism that gave integration theory its unidirectional, quasi-automatic orientation, it was the inherent pessimism of dependency analysts concerning the ability of peripheral countries to overcome the domestic dislocations stemming from integration into the global capitalist system which has given dependency theory its highly deterministic outlook. It cannot adequately explain periodic efforts by peripheral states to change the nature of their ties with metropole countries. To be sure, not all works on integration and dependence have adopted a unidirectional, highly deterministic framework. Pioneering

Foreign Policies of African States in Asymmetrical Dyads

An analysis of the foreign policies of black African states toward industrialized nations in the middle 1960s is employed in a partial test of a theory of the foreign policies of subordinate states in asymmetrical dyads. In this theory, the interaction of two conditions-the state of a nations economy and the extent of concentration in its linkages with a superordinate power-is used to explain the foreign policy actions of the subordinate state toward the superordinate country. Directed dyads are divided into asymmetrical and nonasymmetrical sets, and the hypotheses are tested over both sets via regression analysis. The findings confirm the importance of structural asymmetry as a scope condition on the theory but offer only limited support for the use of the economic strength and linkage concentration variables in the explanation of foreign policy. The results also reveal that the influence of these two variables on foreign policy is not precisely as stipulated by the theory. For the more developed African states, relative economic strength in combination with highly concentrated linkages is associated, contrary to the theory, with a foreign policy of expanded relations with superordinate partners. For the less-developed states, this combination produces a foreign policy designed to restrict relations within the asymmetrical dyad as predicted by the theory.

Calibrating the Clocks A Response to “Old and New Research Designs for Studying the World-System: A Research Note”

The article by Chase-Dunn, Pallas, and Kentor (1982) presents a critique of previously used research designs and two “new” multilevel designs for testing propositions about the world-system. Recognizing that world-system analysis presents researchers with methodological conundrums such as the degrees of freedom problem, we welcome attempts to adapt designs or create new ones that can enable tests of research hypotheses derived from theories of the world-system. Because the research design, with its many potential ramifications, has a vital place in the research process, discussions of the subject are important and require critical reading.