ABSTRACT

Regional subsystems have two broad and inextricably related purposes. First, they regulate their internal affairs for their own collective, maximum benefit; second, they attempt to gain control of the conditions under which external systems relate to them. Conflict and ultimately its containment are the uncomfortable but inevitable preconditions of system formation, in at least equal measure with rational planning and negotiation. A logical relationship exists between superpowers and weaker or threatened members of a regional system. Besides superpowers and regional subsystems, another class of actors is important to the future of the Third World in general and to regional subsystems in particular. The problems that regional influentials can cause for the global system are minor compared to the impact that they can have on their neighbors. The regional influential would make its initial claims in terms of the lion's share of the slice of the power pie available to its subsystem.