ABSTRACT
In a self-help system, interdependence tends to loosen as the number of parties declines, and as it does so the system becomes more orderly and peaceful. The more sensitive countries become, the more internal economic policies have to be brought into accord with external economic conditions. Sensitivity erodes the autonomy of states, but not of all states equally. Defining interdependence as sensitivity leads to an economic interpretation of the world. To understand the foreign-policy implications of high or of low interdependence requires concentration on the politics of international economics, not on the economics of international politics. A politically more pertinent definition is found in everyday usage. Interdependence suggests reciprocity among parties. The behavior of nations in the energy crisis that followed the military one revealed the low political relevance of interdependence defined as sensitivity. The Soviet Union is even less dependent economically on the outside world than we are, but has less economic and political leverage on it.
