M. W. Zacher’s scientific contributions

The authors have approached their subject from the standpoint of observers of the whole process of contemporary international relations practice rather than theory. They have set their whole subject in a historical background. They have observed and taken into consideration the contemporary phenomenon in which the agents in any set of international political processes include a whole series of agents undreamt of in standard international relations theory, ranging from international political organizations to non-governmental organizations, ranging from national interest groups through multinational industrial, commercial and financial, corporations to transnational organizations representing these industrial, commercial or financial interests. They have recognized too that in most cases the individual states are far from the unitary actors they are represented as being, usually thought of and, via their public relations and policy spokesmen, would have the rest of the world believe them to be. The argument that these two authors put forward is subtle and grounded on a great deal of original research. They point out how government standpoints on general issues can change drastically with changing estimates of their own short-term interests as they perceive them and as they are impressed on them by interests and interest groups to whose pressures and arguments they are at different times either vulnerable or sympathetic.