There are three main approaches to the observation and measurement of power: 1) control over resources, 2) control over actors, and 3) control over events and outcomes. The control over events and outcomes approach emerges as the best approach to the measurement of power in contemporary international politics because: 1) it is the only approach which takes into account the possibility of interdependence and collective action, 2) it is more general than the other two approaches, and 3) it produces a type of analysis which has both descriptive and normative advantages. I will discuss each of these approaches at length and criticize them. I will argue that the third approach is superior to the other two for the measurement of power in contemporary international politics because it is better suited to situations in which interdependence and collective action can be derived from the third.

No abstract

Cognitive maps are representations of the causal beliefs or assertions of a specific individual. Maps of three Latin American policy makers (Carlos Andrés Pérez, Roberto de Oliveira Campos, and Aurelio de Lyra Tavares) suggest new hypotheses and ways of comparing maps across individuals: (i) individuals with broader political responsibility may have more complicated maps with respect to numbers of goals and policies, but less complicated maps with respect to linkages between policies and goals, than individuals with narrower responsibility; (2) maps of different individuals can and should be compared with respect to the degree to which they make (or fail to make) distinctions among related concepts; and (3) maps can be used to predict the future policies of individuals, and should be used in this way to test the theoretical potential of the approach.

An attempt will be made here to apply some graph theoretical methods to the analysis of cooperation and conflict among international actors in the 1870's in Europe. This kind of application of graph theory requires the notion of a cooperation-conflict continuum which represents the degree of hostility or friendship directed by one international actor toward another. Such a continuum has been used previously by those interested in the analysis of e vent-interactions. 1The basic unit of interaction is an act made by one actor and directed toward some other actor. The unit is the smallest discriminable segment of international verbal and nonverbal behavior to which the observer, using some set of categories of behavior can assign a classification and identify the actor and the object of this segment of behavior. (Harle 1971, p. 204) This smallest discriminable segment of behavior is given a score on a scale of cooperation-conflict based on the coder's perception of the inherent hostility of friendliness of the act. These scores can then be aggregated over a period of time, making possible both cross-sectional and time-series studies. This methodology has proven its utility and flexibility as a tool for studying international relations, but event-interaction analysis has often been plagued by an ability to make itself relevant to historians and theorists of international politics.2The Corkeley Scale

No abstract