The role of compatibility of major values in integration and development of security communities

This dissertation builds on the framework of Karl Deutsch's theory of integration and the development of security communities in which participating states share an expectation that conflict can be resolved through peaceful means without resort to war. The re-examination of this theory is warranted due to an international trend toward multipolarity, the quickening of integration in some areas, the actual or threatened deterioration of some previously assumed integrated communities; and opportunities to test the theory outside of the Atlantic/European area.; Some scholars have suggested that a shortcoming of Deutsch's integration theory is its lack of precision in identifying the procedural requirements for integration to occur, the precedence and difference in criticality of necessary background conditions, and how and when background conditions evolve into a process. Deutsch's integration theory also lacks a means to accurately measure progress toward or actual achievement of a security community.; Examination of pre and post-World War II United States-Japanese and Australian-Japanese relations and progress toward becoming pluralistic security communities provide insights into the integration process. Historical case studies are employed to determine development and trends in the essential conditions, their relative importance and precedence, and evidence of progress toward and achievement of integration. The United States and Japan have succeeded in crossing the integration threshold and have established a pluralistic security community. Australian and Japan, although they have made significant progress toward integration, have not yet achieved the status of a pluralistic security community.; Findings suggest that compatibility of certain major values is the critical independent variable. A discernible process can be identified whereby an increase in the compatibility of the major values of openness, or willingness to accept vulnerability vis-a-vis another state, nurtures a genuine mutual responsiveness between the states involved. This process is furthered by social learning which proceeds more rapidly as values become more compatible. Trends in specific indicators, considered to be consistent with countries that fear and prepare for war with another country, also serve to demonstrate progress toward and determine the crossing of the integration threshold with some precision.