The Political Science of Peter J. Katzenstein
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ASSOCIATION NEWS The Political Science of Peter J. Katzenstein Peter A. Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego Robert O. Keohane, Princeton University Stephen D. Krasner, Stanford University David Laitin, Stanford University T.J. Pempel, University of California, Berkeley Wolfgang Streeck, Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Sidney Tarrow, Cornell University APSA President (2008) eter Katzenstein is a prodigiously tional behavior, but these have Pproductive scholar. As a comparativ- been different books. What ist, a student of international relations, an no one has done better than Peter J. Katzenstein historian, and one who has successfully Katzenstein is to integrate bridged the qualitative and quantitative different levels of analysis in Walter S. Carpenter, Jr., divide in our discipline, he has made sig- the same book, something that Professor of International nal contributions to general international he accomplished in both his Studies relations, political economy, security stud- earlier studies of small states Cornell University ies, European and German studies, Asian and his later ones on Japanese and Japanese studies, and political science security and world regions. Ph.D. in general. In this brief résumé, seven of Katzenstein has been a Harvard University his friends and collaborators highlight his pioneer in two major interna- major contributions. tional relations literatures: in- One of the defining characteristics of ternational political economy Katzenstein’s work has been his ability to and international security. At the same so different from the societies in which move seamlessly between international time, in the comparative politics field, he they were brought up. He therefore sees and comparative politics. All students has been a path breaker in our understand- differences between the United States and of international politics recognize that ing of comparative political economy and other societies that Americans may miss, the state is not just a black box, but few in comparative regional analysis, both in since they take American practices for have been able to open that box with Europe and, more recently, on a global granted. And he sees, acutely, the tensions confidence. Some international relations scale. But more important than his con- and contradictions in American practices scholars have written books about both the tributions to either subdiscipline has been and beliefs—what he and Robert O. Keo- international system and variations in na- his capacity to bridge the two, and the hane, following David Laitin, called the growing reach of his work from Europe “polyvalence” of America in their book to Asia, and more recently to the United on anti-Americanism (2007). Peter A. Gourevitch is a professor of po- States. Before discussing the vast amount litical science at the University of California, Second, there is his enduring interest in San Diego. of substantive work that Katzenstein has the legacies and transformations produced published during a career of almost 40 by history. To understand the variety of Robert O. Keohane is Professor of years, we discuss five major themes that policies pursued by societies toward other Public and International Affairs at Princeton motivate and unify his work. societies, it is essential to understand the University. history of the societies involved, with their residues of attitudes, practices, and Stephen D. Krasner is a professor of Persistent Themes political science at Stanford University. expectations about their relationship to the Katzenstein’s work has reflected four world outside. This theme is evident from David Laitin is the James T. Watkins IV signature themes, from his first article in his Ph.D. dissertation onward. and Elise V. Watkins Professor of Political International Organization in 1971 (“Hare Third, and increasingly, Katzenstein Science at Stanford University. and Tortoise: The Race toward Integra- has sought to link structural with cultural tion”) to his latest books and articles. analysis. His work during the first 15 T.J. Pempel is a professor of political First, Katzenstein has always em- years of his career was largely structural: science at the University of California, phasized the distinctiveness of national to understand patterns of policy, one needs Berkeley. societies, with their historically con- to understand political structure. Yet he ditioned domestic structures and par- was not satisfied with structural expla- Wolfgang Streeck is the director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforsc- ticular cultures. He began his career as nations. Indeed, he came around to the hung in Cologne, Germany. a Europeanist and moved determinedly view that what goes on in people’s heads into Asia in the last decade but he is also is crucially important. Why, he asked, Sidney Tarrow is the Maxwell Upson in the long line of analysts of the United did postwar Germany and Japan, despite Professor of Government and Sociology at States, dating from Tocqueville, who see being so similar structurally, behave so Cornell University. America as so fascinating because it is differently toward terrorism? His answer: PSOnline www.apsanet.org 893 they were “informed by different norms” politics worldwide will become increas- his colleagues argued that much impor- (1993. 266). Yet in embracing cultural ingly homogeneous. This global political tant behavior in world politics cannot be explanations, he did not reject structural economy view, with many variations, has understood without understanding norms, ones, but rather sought to understand how deeply affected work on European politi- culture, and identity. They sought both to domestic structures are rooted in cultural cal integration, economic interdependence define these terms clearly and to show that practices. and foreign policy, the comparative poli- neither realism nor liberalism could be Fourth, truth, for Katzenstein, comes tics of wealthy countries, and the politics persuasive without being embedded in a from attention to minute political details of globalization. In the realm of security broader sociological perspective. That is, and not from the abstraction of central politics, structural views have also pre- they called for a “sociological turn” in the tendencies found in statistical models or vailed, notably in the structural realism of study of world politics, a call that has con- the core strategic interactions highlighted Kenneth W. Waltz. tributed to a large and growing literature in formal models. He is determined never In his work on international relations, seeking to show how social norms affect to short circuit the complexity of the inter- Katzenstein has consistently criticized the conduct of international relations. national system or that of domestic poli- this structural conception of a homo- Katzenstein’s most recent single- tics. As an analyst of societies’ interac- geneous world. In Disjoined Partners authored work is A World of Regions: Asia tions with their external environments, he (1976a) he showed that political integra- and Europe in the American Imperium. In has adopted a dual vision—understanding tion in culturally similar societies—in this major study, Katzenstein emphasizes interdependence without forgetting that this case, Germany and Austria—is far not only regional distinctiveness but that, convergence is precluded by difference. from assured. Indeed, he wrote, “multiple in his view, “globalization and internation- These themes have produced an mutually reinforcing counter pressures . alization make today’s regions porous” intersecting and portentous realization . make for the persistence of political (2005, 19). That is, transnational flows of that one cannot understand societies autonomy” (220). Similarly in his edited money, people, and goods, coupled with without understanding the regional and book, Between Power and Plenty (1978a), interstate institutional orders, promote global contexts within which they exist; Katzenstein and his co-authors emphasize connections among these regions without and one cannot understand regional and the divergence, not convergence, of the destroying their diversity. But to under- global politics without understanding foreign economic strategies of advanced stand a “world of regions,” one has to the distinctiveness of the societies that countries, which he explained as “due understand the power dimension as well, compose them. In his work on foreign principally to differences in domestic since it is “embedded in the American economic policies and on the policies of structure” (297). imperium” (209). Economic and political small states, Katzenstein insisted on the If global structural explanations are structures; history, norms, and culture; in- importance of understanding the variety false or at least incomplete, what accounts terests and power: all of these components of capitalist states. A World of Regions for the persistence of difference—for the are part of Katzenstein’s rich conception (2005) restates the theme that regions and absence of homogeneity? For Katzenstein, of world politics. societies are porous to the global system, the answers are history and culture: which also depends on the actions of its In the 1980s, Katzenstein emphasized component parts. history. In what is surely one of his most International Political We now turn to the major areas of important works, Small States in World Economy political science in which Katzenstein has Markets, he employed an historically Katzenstein is