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Whether cooperation helps to reduce conflict in international relations is a standing subject for discussion. This research note contributes by reporting some evidence and early ideas from an on-going project about post-1950 Great Power politics. Two different interpretations are suggested of the notion that cooperation prevents conflict: a 'structural' hypothesis, according to which extensive cooperation implies a structure in which major conflict is implausible; and a 'process' hypothesis, according to which changes in cooperation bring about self-reinforcing processes of escalation or de-escalation. Available data on tension and cooperation among Great Powers in recent decades essentially disconfirm both hypotheses. The main, albeit tentative, conclusion drawn in the note is that cooperation helps to reduce conflict only in fairly special circumstances and that tension may be a more important variable in a theory of cooperation than vice versa.

This article attempts to clarify what we know and do not know about the international system's power structure by first analysing some key concepts in power analysis and then summarizing some traditional ideas about international power. In Part I of the article concepts like 'the exercise of power', 'the possession of power', 'power structure', and 'power base' are discussed; it is concluded that the key difficulty in analysing international power is our scanty knowledge about power bases. Part II departs from the notion that when mapping the international power structure we should first and foremost identify the 'Great Powers', analyse the relations between these Powers, and examine the 'spheres of interest' surrounding them; it is argued that this is traditionally done in a simplistic way but that more realistic accounts of international power may become complex enough to call into question whether there really exists something that deserves to be called an international power structure.

ABSTRACTAgainst the background of the current tendency of foreign policy analysts to emphasize the so‐called domestic sources of foreign policy, this article discusses the role played by external factors. Three different ways in which the student of domestic sources of foreign policy may conceive of the interplay between foreign and domestic factors are suggested. The significance of domestic factors for the analyst whose primary focus is on the foreign ones is then discussed. Empirical illustrations are taken from Sweden's foreign and defence policy.

This article is an interim report of a research project in which an attempt is made to measure the variations in East-West 'tension' in Europe after 1945 and to explain the variations by reference to, inter alia, variations in 'global bipolarization'. The author presents tentative theoretical definitions of these key concepts; he also discusses and illustrates how they can be made operational. Against the background of earlier theoretical literature about bipolarity vs. multipolarity and polarization vs. depolar ization in the international system, he then presents a number of hypotheses about the way in which variations in the degree of bipolarization may affect tension in inter national systems. He finds that there are good theoretical arguments in favour of the opinion that bipolarization tends to increase tension, but also good arguments in favour of the contrary idea, and he concludes by pointing out that the issue can only be settled by way of systematic empirical investigation.