ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the roots of change in the international system. It identifies the cause of changes in a specific distribution of power in a system, such as that brought about by the demise of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, as to discover the basis of more general changes in the elements of system structure. The international system before World War II was already a strong military-political one. The chapter suggests that some new opportunities are created, and that the costs and the payoffs that accompany different choices may change. India and Pakistan are limited in their ability to take advantage of international incentives to follow trading strategies, and so may have turned to nuclear testing for prestige. The chapter clearly shares the view of many liberal theorists that incentives in the system do increasingly favor economic strategies.
