1989 – Robert Keohane

What’s the best way to encourage the nations of the world to cooperate?

Economic agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank may offer the most hope, according to Robert Keohane, a political scientist at Duke University and recipient of the 1989 award.

In his award-winning book, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy, Keohane notes that the disappearance of “hegemony,” or dominance of one or two nations over others, has led to a complex global economy.

Cooperation is of primary importance, he argues, because the United States and Soviet Union now share economic power with Japan, West Germany and many other nations.

Keohane proposes that all nations can benefit by creating and working through international economic agencies, which set forth common rules and share information, but exert no authority over individual governments.

Judges called the idea “a timely contribution” to international relations theory.