Deepening Interdependence

In an age when technology is daily tightening the webs of transnational interdependence, groping for new means of managing that interdependence is inevitable. Much pioneering has been done since the end of World War II but we are still in the early years of the technological and nuclear era.

While many of today's unsolved problems are global in scope, what the democratic industrialized nations do, or fail to do, in concert is crucial not only for them but for all other peoples. These are the nations, loosely called the Atlantic Community but increasingly including Japan, which are responsible for two-thirds of the world's industrial production, three-fourths of its trade, and nine-tenths of its overseas investment and aid to less developed nations. And intellectually their nationals have achieved 96 per cent of all the Nobel Prizes ever granted.

Elliot Goodman's comprehensive book presents a picture, both scholarly and fascinating, of the efforts of these governments to deal with their common problems and establish more effective relationships. He analyzes the problems of the various approaches - from Gaullist nationalism to Atlantic Federal Union, and the intermediate schools of the "dumbbell" and "twin pillar" theories, sectoral functional integration, and others.

More importantly he traces the actual successes and failures of the members of the community to deal with concrete problems - nuclear weapons and arms standardization, relations with the communist nations and the less developed ones, protectionist pressures, currency fluctuations, differing degrees of dependence on external sources of oil and raw materials, and domestic economic and social problems.

The author is objective and perceptive, and his treatment of the interplay of forces at work makes this current history as readable as a novel. He fully recognizes the strength of the divisive and nationalistic forces at work and how they rise and fall in relation to swings between popular awareness of danger and complacency. He also paints a convincing picture of the underlying forces which are steadily deepening interdependence, whether governments like it or not. And, despite frank recognition of current adverse factors and future problems, he is optimistic as to the ability of free men to surmount them.

THE FA TE OF THE A TLA NTICCOMMUNITY. By Elliot R.Goodman '45. 583 pp. Praeger,1975, hardcover, $27.50; AcademicMarket Place, Paper, $5.95.

Mr. Achilles, an ambassador of the UnitedStates, retired, is currently vice chairman of theAtlantic Council of the U.S.