IR3026 International political economy
Note
There has been a minor revision to this syllabus.
Prerequisites (applies to degree students only)
EC1002 Introduction to economics or IR1011 Introduction to international relations.
Syllabus
Globalisation in international political economy: the economic factor in international relations; The concept of globalisation; How new is globalisation?; Globalisation and its discontents
Part 1 Theories of international political economy
Mercantilism and economic nationalism: Early forms of mercantilism; Nineteenth-century mercantilism: Hamilton and List
Classical liberalism and neo-liberalism: Classical liberalism; Free trade liberalism; Twentieth-century liberal theory; The concept of interdependence; The rise of international institutions and regimes.
Imperialism, dependency and neo-Marxism: Karl Marx and Marxism; Lenin and the theory of imperialism; Dependency theory and underdevelopment; Contemporary neo-Marxist theory
Part 2 Structures, issues and actors
The international trade system: Theories of trade; The creation of the GATT; Trade liberalisation under the GATT and the rise of the 'new protectionism'; From the creation of the WTO to the Doha Round
The global financial and monetary order: The rise and decline of the Bretton Woods system; Global monetary order after Bretton Woods; The IMF and international debt crises; Managing financial crises: the 1997 Asian crisis and the 2008 global crisis
Economic development: Poverty and inequality: key indicators; Evolution of development thinking; The Washington Consensus and beyond; The developmental debate today; The World Bank and international aid
Multinational corporations: Multinational production and foreign investment in a global economy; The rise of the global firm; Power shift? State-firms relations in flux; Governing global firms: national and international rules
Environmental protection: Differing perspectives on environmentalism; Early history of international environmental politics; From the 1992 Rio 'Earth Summit' to the 2002 Johannesburg Summit and beyond; The concept of sustainable development; The challenge of climate change
Regionalism in a global economy: Explaining regionalism; The European Union; Regionalism in the Americas and Asia; Regional trade agreements and the WTO: conflict or compatibility?;
The political economy of international relations
