The Power of human needs in world society /

In his foreword, John Burton deems this "a landmark book." In reality, it is more modest. The editors have collected or commissioned 12 studies (six of them previously published) by recognized scholars who question the time-honored paradigm of "power politics"--the emphasis on military and economic strength as the backbone of effective international policy. Focusing instead on human needs, Coate and Rosati provide general essays rather than detailed case studies, based on the view that international relations should be viewed "as a function of processes of legitimization and delegitimization in world society, which result from individuals and groups pursuing needs and values rather than being reducible to state power politics." This volume succeeds more in raising questions about international relations norms and values than in convincing skeptical readers of the utility of the approach. Nonetheless, it is a useful extension of such books as Ross Fitzgerald's Human Needs and Politics (CH, Jan '78), Han Park's Human Needs and Political Development (1984), and David Braybrooke's Meeting Needs (CH, Jan '88). Chapter notes, but no overall bibliography. For graduate students and faculty. -C. E. Welch, SUNY at Buffalo