Autonomy and Interdependence

The 1970s through the early 1980s was a difficult period in the history of the U.S. economy. Double-digit inflation, high unemployment, sharply reduced industrial competitiveness, and worrisome trade deficits clouded the horizon, while Japan, Germany, and other European nations competed successfully for world markets.
In this controversial new book, Thomas Ilgen argues that these U.S. difficulties in the world economy were the result of the success of postwar foreign policy objectives rather than of their failure. The United States successfully created a network of interdependence among the Western allies while insisting upon complete autonomy for its own domestic economy. Because of the dramatically asymmetrical power relations involved, the incompatibility of these objectives failed to become apparent until the early 1970s.