Introduction

A few years ago, I published a study that examined the relationship between political leaders’ perceptions of historical processes and the historical record (Maoz, 2004). I content-analyzed the speeches of all the heads of state who participated in the September 2000 UN Millennium Summit. I was struck that nearly every leader talked about the interconnectedness and interdependence of international relations. Most emphasized that it was impossible for a state to live in complete or even relative isolation. No state is an island, even if it resides on one.

This book documents the extent to which this belief is rooted in fact. The connectedness of international relations is not surprising. Nor is it new. To some extent, the world has exhibited at least partial connectedness since the dawn of human history. What is striking, however, is just how such connectedness manifests itself in different ways and how it became more extensive and complex over time. We have many names for this connectedness – globalization, small world, or global village. There are also many different aspects of connectedness – among people across political borders, between firms, or among social organizations, and there are the complex relations among nations. Understanding the causes of the rapidly changing and co-evolving patterns of connectedness may well become the central focus of what Duncan Watts called “the science of the Twenty-First Century” (Watts, 2007: 489). Even if network science does nothing more than add to our understanding of collective human and social behavior, it will be a great leap forward.