Abstract
The 'East/West conflict' lacks content, their economies being complementary rather than competing, but its ritualized dramatization is useful for the superpowers to control their allies. USA is no longer able to combine the — mutually dependent — roles of world banker and world policeman, having lost out in the growth race to Japan and Western Europe and therefore having a 'national' interest in curbing free trade. Since this would harm global capitalism, there are dilemmas on both sides of the Atlantic. At the same time, corporate growth is stripping the states of powers, and capital needs superstates to guarantee growth in social harmony. The intra-West conflicts are illustrated by, e. g., oil, money and defence industry, and the only way out is seen as a radical social transformation to cancel the law of 'survival of the fastest'. The reviewer takes some issue with the analysis of state-corpora tion relations.
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