Information to users

For Keohane and Nye and others, the international system would not function in complete symmetry, that is, each group
21 Jones and Willetts. Interdependence on Trial, p. 14.
22 Jones, Globalisation and Interdependence in the
International Political Economy, p. 8.
31
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
giving and receiving 'equally." 'Asymmetries in
interdependence are important both economically and
politically. Economically/ they make one country or group of countries sensitive to economic policies and economic cycles in other countries that are not so dependent themselves. Politically/ asymmetries create power relations between countries and vulnerabilities open to political
exploitation. They give countries that are less dependent leverage over countries that are more dependent."23 An
important response to this would be, 'Where asymmetry or imbalance is held to prevail it may then become a question of how much is permissible in a relationship before it
should properly be deemed one of dominance or one-way
dependence, rather than proper interdependence."24
More importantly, asymmetry is not merely a conceptual
heuristic. 'Such asymmetry and imbalances are, moreover, prevalent within the contemporary international system."25 Examples of it evident in the world today might include something as simple as telecommunications trade imbalances between nations to the more complicated assertion that when
23 David P. Levine. 'Global Interdependence and National
Prosperity," in Robert A. Blecker, ed., US Trade Policy and Global Growth (Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1996), p. 39 (37-57).
24Jones and Willetts. Interdependence on Trial, p. 20,
italics in original.
25Jones, Globalisation and Interdependence in the
International Political Economy, p. 8.
32
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Microsoft sells a windows operating system, the user feels * forced" to return to the same company for an upgrade or complementary software or hardware or the learn and utilize the English language.
The next step, then, is the question of relevance. Why
would being in a situation of asymmetric interdependence be important to a particular actor? What is gained from having an 'upper hand" in international interactions? 'The
asymmetry and imbalance characterising . . . pattern[s] of 'interdependence' may have very serious implications for the relationship. Asymmetry and imbalance could be particularly pertinent to the potential for relative power and influence between the participants."26 In other words, it provides an advantage in encouraging and persuading others to act
according to a country's desires. This is a generally
accepted definition of power.
Philosophers and scholars have struggled to define
power, often resorting to what can be seen and measured - such as military strength as with the number of tanks or troops, or economic strength as with the size of a GNP. But, by definition, groups in an interdependent world may become relevant in many different issues areas, though these areas may be prioritized according to situation and environment.
26 Jones, Globalisation and Interdependence in the
International Political Economy, p. 8.
33
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Power, then, must be definable as more than just tanks and dollars.
The answer lies in the encouraging and persuading
elements of power's definition. 'Proof of power lies not in resources but in the ability to change the behavior of
states. Thus, the critical questions for the United States is not whether it will start the next century as the
superpower with the largest supply of resources, but to what extent it will be able to control the political environment and get other countries to do what it wants."27 Nye
describes the use of what he terms 'soft power," or
intangible forms of power, such as the control of and access to information and communications, organizing and
institutional skills (especially the use of international institutions) and the ability to manipulate interdependent relationships. It is because of the potential of this soft power that issues other than military strength are becoming more relevant in this interdependent world; issues like control of information and communications content and
accompanying technologies.