International Political Economy

By singrdave Posted March 22, 2006 19:55:09

Why is there increased attention to the international political economy?

Money truly is what makes the world go around. The climate today is one of increased wariness regarding the future. We look at the economy as a fragile entity that needs constant tinkering through rate increases and decreases from the Federal Reserve. Trade deficits and surpluses are managed through constant statecraft and diplomacy, through the establishment of free trade zones and economic unions, tariffs, and embargoes. "If there is a central concept in international economics it must be 'wealth', or, more specifically, the 'wealth of nations'" (class notes, "The International Economy").

Nations constantly vie for new markets for their goods, which is, according to Strange, the new conquest: the war for new markets (43). There is no more territory to be claimed, and as we saw in the case of Kuwait and South Korea, an invading land grab will surely incur the intervention of the United Nations. So would-be world conquerors look to the economic arena. "This shift away from states and towards markets is probably the biggest change in the international political economy to take place in the last half of the twentieth century" (Strange, 43). No longer do we look to nations to enact change on the world stage, we look to the transnational corporations. The biggest driver of the international political economy is not the nation-state any more; the TNC drives the economic and thereby the political climate into the 21st century.

Sources:
Class notes, "The International Economy".
Strange, Susan. The Retreat of the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1996.

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Ahhh... foreign economic policy. Does it get any better than this?

Power grab has always been economically determined--way before Columbus and Hudson Bay Company.

But Power Grab itself is being redefined. Social Darwinism is still at work, but at the hands of Adam Smith instead of Gengis Khan.

I like that today, as if to underscore this, Bush signed a free-trade agreement with the Ukraine.