The Web of Power illustrates the central importance of international development policy to national economic and strategic security. Kozo Kato's meticulous analysis of Japanese and German international cooperation policy overturns the myth of Japan and Germany's convergent development strategies, revealing that each state's policy for fostering interdependence has been shaped by markedly different domestic political agendas. Japanese development policy moved to embrace international cooperation as a means of pursuing national interests while Germany—fearing the economic risks and political costs of a global-scope approach—restricted its development strategy to Europe. This work will be of great interest to political scientists, economists, and scholars of international relations who wish to better understand, using Japanese multinationalism and German regionalism as case studies, the fluctuating dynamics of modern economic forces.
