Taking a fresh look at the impact of non-state actors on world politics and on the foreign policies of states, this book revives the debate on transnational relations which started in the 1970s. This debate withered away in the face of state-centered approaches, but this book's new approach emphasizes the interaction of states and transnational actors, arguing that domestic structures of the state as well as international institutions mediate the policy influence of transnational actors. Empirical chapters examine the European Economic and Monetary Union, US-Japanese transnational relations, multinational corporations in East Asia, Soviet and Russian security policy, democratization in Eastern Europe, and ivory management in Africa. The book concludes with chapters discussing the theoretical implications of the findings in the empirical studies.

What difference do nonstate actors in international relations (such as Greenpeace, Amnesty International, IBM, or organizations of scientists) make in world politics? How do cross-national links interact with the world of states? Who controls whom? This book answers these questions by investigating the impact of nonstate actors on foreign policy in several issue areas and in regions around the world. It argues that the impact of such nonstate actors will depend on the institutional structure of states as well as international regimes and organizations.

In exploring the special nature of alliances among democracies, the author argues that the West European and Canadian allies exerted greater influence on American foreign policy during the Cold War than most analysts assume. This book's findings evaluate the post-Cold War's transatlantic security community and its survival.

This book provides an innovative analysis, using sociological theory to examine world politics as a differentiated social realm.