Network analysis and the Amsterdam School an unfulfilled promise?

The Amsterdam School (AS) has made important and highly original contributions to our understanding of global power relations. Two of its attributed strengths are that it relies on detailed narrative accounts of rival capitalist strategies and policies, and that it analyses interpersonal networks, corporate ties, and material interdependencies. In The making of an Atlantic ruling class, van der Pijl already noted the role of bankers and finance capitalists in the network of interlocking directorates between German banking and industry. In contrast, Meindert Fennema's seminal dissertation did rigorously conceptualize the network of the transnational corporate elite. When it appeared, however, this work was perhaps considered relevant to, but not an integral part of, the AS. Fennema moved to other areas of research and van der Pijl continued in a historical and theoretical direction. Network analysis remained by and large an unfulfilled promise for the AS. This is unfortunate and should be remedied for at least three reasons.