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Week1 - Introduction to the Course and the Nature of GPEChapter 2
Questions:
1. What is GPE?
2. What methods are used to study GPE? How do they differ from one another?
3. How has globalisation impacted on research priorities in GPE?
4. What are the assumptions of O’Brien and Williams’ (2016) approach to GPE?
[GPE AS A DISCIPLINE]
Introduction
- International Political Economy (IPE) emerged as a discipline in the mid-1970s.
- Global Political Economy (GPE) 1980s (obsession with globalisation).
- IPE and GPE interchangeable concepts.
- After the fall of the Berlin Wall globalisation emerge and GPE took the common name
for this field of study.
- Distinct subfield of International Relations.
Why?
- Arab Oil Embargo (1973-1974) The embargo was targeted at nations perceived as
supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The embargo caused an oil crisis, with
many short-and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy. (inflation
+ unemployment)
- ‘Nixon Shock (1971) Richard Nixon put in place series of economic measures to
respond to the impacts of the embargo’s had on the increasing inflation. Most
significant of which were wage and price freezes, surcharges on imports and the
unilateral cancellation of the direct international convertibility of the United States
dollar to gold.
- International issues are just as important as domestic issues.
- Interdependence became a growing concern.
- Wide variety of actors (esp. non-state actors) became relevant.
- Efforts to include ‘economics’ alongside traditional security concerns of i.r and foreign
policy.
1
,Studying GPE
- Just politics or just economics insufficient to focus on, the disciplines is interlinked.
- GPE demands an interdisciplinary approach. (
- Allows for greater complexity – therefore greater explanatory power?
- “The whole point of studying IPE rather than IR is to extend more widely the
conventional limits of the study of politics…” - Susan Strange
Wealth vs. Power
- IR / Politics (realism perspective): Power as the ability to produce intended effects
(tends to ignore wealth as power).
- Economics: scarcity, distribution, consumption (tends to ignore power as determining
economic decisions).
- GPE: Wealth as power (disparities in wealth between nations).
- Political structures ⟺ economic interactions. (the political affects the economic and
vice versa)
- “[IPE is] the set of international and global problems that cannot usefully be
understood or analysed as just international politics or just international economics.”
– Michael Veseth.
- “Since most economic questions are notoriously political, and almost all political
questions involve some economic considerations, one cannot describe issues any
more as ‘purely economic’ or as ‘purely political’. Both are both.” – Susan Strange
- Interplay between the state, market, and society.
- The State: IPE challenges IR notions of states and power by suggesting that states
can lose power to, for example, market actors.
- The Market: efficiency vs. power
- Society: what role does society and its values and beliefs play?
What do we study?
- Impact of transnational corporations (production, global division of labour, gender,
the environment).
- International finance (Global Financial Crisis 2007-2009)
- International trade (trade wars between the U.S. and China)
- Development & North-South relations
- Interdependence & globalisation?? (Brexit, election of Donald Trump, xenophobic
violence in SA).
- COVID-19
2
,O’Brien and Williams (2016) Approach
- Historical Approach
- Theoretical Perspectives
- Material and Ideational Aspects (Constructivism)
- Globalisation
3
, Week 2 - Approaches/ Theories
Chapter 1
Questions:
1. What are the three main contending approaches to GPE and their assumptions?
2. How do the approaches differ from one another in terms of actors and dynamics, and how
do they view conflict and cooperation?
3. How do these approaches influence the way we look at GPE events?
[THEORIES / APPROACHES]
Theory
- The same subject can be examined in different disciplines from a variety of
perspectives.
- Theories explain, describe, and predict (glasses with different lenses)
- Different theories have different basic assumptions about
o a) the units of analysis
o b) the nature of the system
o c) the motivations of the actors (they are thus incompatible)
- We choose theories for their specific utility – “Theory is always for someone and
some purpose.” – Robert Cox
- Social location of observer is important. (What is your perception?)
1. Economic nationalism / mercantilism (role of the state and the importance of power in
shaping outcomes in i.p.e.).
2. Liberalism (emphasis on the individual & non state actors’ cooperation → peace;
importance of economy, non-interference in market).
3. Constructivism (values, norms, ideas, language).
4. Critical theories (question the way the world is organised; challenge structures of
power; propose how the world could and should change to make it more equitable).
a. Marxism (class)
b. Feminism (gender)
c. Ecologism / Green Theory (environment)
d. Postcolonialism (legacy of imperialism)
e. Poststructuralism (language & culture)
4
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