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This page contains the searchable bibliography of Susan Strange’s academic work, academic and journalistic work that draws on Susan Strange’s theories and ideas. This bibliography remains a work in progress: if you have completed work, or know of works, that we should feature here, please let us know.

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The Erosion of the State

Strange, Susan. Current History 96, no. 613 (1997): 365-369.

Strange briefly revisits the globalisation debate and suggests those who argue that as the state still exists, globalisation can be ignored are very mistaken. She then goes on to outline three dilemmas of globalisation: the economic, in that increasingly there is no political authority able to govern and control market relations; the environmental, while on one hand market actors are driven by the profit motive to use up environmental resources, countervailing power is largely absent; the political, there is a major democratic deficit in the governance structure of the global system. Strange then links these aspects of globalisation to technical change and increased mobility of capital. However, a concentration on the state misses the 'new diplomacy' between firms and other non-state actors as well as states themselves as outline in Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991) . She then restates briefly her argument from The Retreat of the State (1996). The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (1996), the state is losing its authority due to: the decline in importance of war-making and security; its inability to control the value of the currency; and its increasingly lack of credibility as a provider of welfare. Thus, to deny the decline of the state is to deny that something needs to be done about it unless big business is to come to rule the international system.

Keywords: Authority; Globalization; Markets; States; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Authority, Globalization, Markets, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1997

The Future of Global Capitalism: or Will Divergence Persist Forever

Strange, Susan. In The Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity, edited by Colin Crouch, Wolfgang Streeck, 182-191. London: Sage, 1997.

In this response to the contents of the volume in which it appears, Strange distances herself from comparative political economists studying different forms of national capitalism, and argues for a global perception of a more systemic view of capitalism. She notes that technological change and the mobility of capital and knowledge have produced a number of overlapping diversities in different sectors rather than a single state based set of diversities. The new institutional approach misses not only these changes but also the decline of governments ability to influence economic organisation, the growing disparity between the power of states and of multinationals, and the increase in bond financing (as a substitute for taxation) which is problematic for investment. Overall Strange is dismissive of a focus on diversity suggesting the more important problems will be the result of the increasing convergence of capitalism.

Keywords: Global Governance; Knowledge; Theory; Global System; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Colin Crouch and Editor: Wolfgang Streeck
Keywords: Global Governance, Knowledge, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

The Problem or the Solution? Capitalism and the State System

Strange, Susan. In Innovation and Transformation in International Studies, edited by Stephen Gill, James H. Mitelman, 236-247. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Again Strange criticises International Relations for not focusing on the systemic problems, not least of all environmental and financial issues which a concern for inter-state relations misses. Thus International Political Economy is open to approaches from political geography, historical sociology and elsewhere that have not been fixated on the relations between states as the key causal factor in the global system. Globalised production and finance are integrating most areas into a global system and it is the system not states which analysis should focus on in the future.

Keywords: Global Governance; Globalization; Money and Finance; Production; International Relations; Global System

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Stephen Gill and Editor: James H. Mittelman
Keywords: Global Governance, Globalization, Money and Finance, Production, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

A Reply to Chris May

Strange, Susan. Global Society 10, no. 3 (1996): 303-305.

In Strange's reply to May's article (Strange Fruit: Susan Strange's theory of Structural-Power in the International Political Economy Global Society 10, 2 (May 1996): 167 -189), she engages with two criticisms made of her theory of structural power. Firstly she suggests that the knowledge structure itself is not necessarily prior as is suggested it might be considered to be if her process of agenda setting power is regarded as central. Furthermore my reworking of the knowledge structure while suggestive was overly dependent on a de-contextualised reading of Schumacher, whom she knew personally and whose views are misrepresented. Secondly, while agreeing with the criticism that she lacks a general theory of change she asserts that such a general theory is not possible, noting that she is however sensitive to particular forms of change. Finally, she concludes by agreeing that Paul Feyerabend's 'methodological anarchism' is helpful in giving epistemological grounds for her eclectic approach.

Keywords: Knowledge; Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Knowledge, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1996

Europe's Future in the Global Political Economy

Strange, Susan. In Reflections on the Identity of Europe: Global Transatlantic Perspectives, edited by Thomas Row. Bologna: The John Hopkins University Bologna Center, 1996.

Strange argues in this reflection on the future of Europe that too little analytical attention has been paid to the corporate sector and its role in three important structural shifts in the global political economy: new and faster technological changes that have speeded up the competitive cycle (and reduced the time for investors to recover their outlay on innovation); moves in finance towards a much more globalised financial sector with a reduction in the role of national (or in this case European Union) policy interventions; and a shift in the location of production, facilitated by the other two changes. This, she argues, means that the chief dimension of difference in the global political economy is no longer state political but rather is related to corporate activity and interest. In the face of the relative inaction (caused by political sclerosis at the EU), she argues that to understand the political economy, analysts can no longer ignore or simplify the political economy of the private sector but rather need to include corporations as a central element of their analysis; There is no longer a European orientation to the global political economy separate from the role and activity of international business.

Keywords: Corporations; Europe; Money and Finance; Production; Technology; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Thomas Row
Keywords: Corporations, Europe, Money and Finance, Production, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1996

The Retreat of the State: State Diffusion of Power in the World Economy

Strange, Susan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

In what might effectively be regarded as the third part of a trilogy, together with States and Markets (1988) and Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991), Strange examines states' transition towards the sidelines of global political economic relations. Though in the past authority might have been state based, now she argues it is more often based on non-state abilities to bring about (or structure) outcomes. This has to some extent been obscured by the increasing intervention by states in the lives of their citizens, giving an impression of the retention of power. While some states have fared better than others, the US being the prime example of a state retaining significant power, in general Strange sees new sites of authority in the global system are rising to challenge even the strongest states. Relations between states and non-state authority are arrayed along a continuum from the Mafia, threatening and undermining remaining state authority, to the big-six accountancy firms and transnational legal partnerships which work with state based authority and by doing so support it. Lacking the means to autonomously change its interactions with the global political economy, the state has lost the most important and significant aspect of its potential.

Keywords: Foundational Work; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Foundational Work, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book

Year of Publication: 1996

1995 Presidential Address: ISA as a Microcosm

Strange, Susan. International Studies Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1995): 289-295.

After briefly discussing the history of the ISA, Strange points out that it is the International Studies Association, despite the current domination of International Relations. Once again Strange argues for the constructive engagement with other discipline interested in the international system, from political geographers to business economists. Strange points to the relative decline of state-state violence relative to civil and local violence, the increasing interest in the environment, and the dangers stemming from the financial markets, as reasons for widening the ISA's implicit agenda. Stressing that in the post-Cold War world there is only one superpower, Strange argues that for millions America is a common second-country. This is a very powerful position to be in, but it also requires the US. to remain part of the world system - not to flee into isolationism. The ISA as an embryonic epistemic community can do a lot to ensure this does not happen.

Keywords: Global Governance; Hegemony; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Global Governance, Hegemony, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1995

European Business in Japan. A Policy Cross-roads?

Strange, Susan. Journal of Common Market Studies 33, no. 1 (1995): 1-25.

Contrasting European and American proposals for the perceived difficulty of setting up foreign owned subsidiaries in Japan, Strange argues that this is a central issue for any nascent European foreign policy initiative. She argues that it may now be beyond any nationally elected government (even in the US.) to re-impose its hegemonic intent on other states. But some co-ordinated pressure from Japanese and European policy bodies may support the reintroduction into global politics of a more interdependent (and less free-market) approach to commercial and financial diplomacy. This would be to adopt the policy of 'gaiatsu' (pressure from foreigners) to encourage a less disruptive US. foreign policy in these areas. Also published as EUI Working Paper RSC No.94/10.

Keywords: Europe; Japan; Interdependence

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Europe, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1995

Political Economy and International Relations

Strange, Susan. In International Relations Theory Today, edited by Ken Booth, Steve Smith, 154-174. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.

Noting that it is over twenty years since she and others argued for the end of the false division between politics and economics, Strange argues that the development of modern IPE has been in reaction to events within the global system. She suggests that there is still a division between an American IPE based conception of the Politics of International Economic Relations, and a non-American approach that bears some similarity to her own framework as laid out in States and Markets (1988) and elsewhere. She once again makes many of the criticisms she has detailed before regarding the discipline's deference to international economics. Strange suggests the way forward is to conceptualise politics more widely, building on the work of moral philosophers and to apply her conception of structural power, as well as the more usual considerations of relational power.

Keywords: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Ken Booth and Editor: Steve Smith
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1995

The Defective State

Strange, Susan. Daedelus 124, no. 2 (1995): 55-74.

Strange argues that while states remain superficially important as major actors within the global system, the underlying power relations have hollowed out their authority. This authority has in some cases flowed 'upwards' to international institutions, and in other cases flowed down to markets (and also more localised organisations). These movements have led to an asymmetry of structural authority in the global system. Strange also makes some comments regarding the state-centric nature of the discipline of International Relations and suggests a new research agenda based around her conception of structural power and the importance of non-state actors in the functioning of authority. Thus while competition between states continues in some sense, it has been joined by other fields of competition that the disciplines of International Relations and International Political Economy need to contend with if they are to remain relevant to the global political economy.

Keywords: Corporations; International Institutions; States; Structural Power, Power; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Corporations, International Institutions, States, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1995

The Limits of Politics

Strange, Susan. Government and Opposition 30, no. 3 (1995): 291-311.

Originally delivered as a lecture at the LSE this article finds Strange explicitly engaging with the notion of globalisation. For Strange globalisation is: the development of products for explicitly global and transnational markets; the decline of barriers and distinctions between national economies; the emergence of at least partial labour mobility in addition to the more recognised capital mobility; and the speeding up of transport and communications. While these trends have changed the balance between authority and markets over outcomes in the international political economy, they have also led to an increasingly globalised but asymmetrical array of structural power.

Keywords: Authority; Globalization; Markets; Theory; Structural Power, Power; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Authority, Globalization, Markets, Theory, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1995

Finance and Capitalism: The City's Imperial Role Yesterday and Today

Strange, Susan. Review of International Studies 20, no. 4 (1994): 407-410.

In this short review of P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins British Imperialism (2 vols) (London: Longman 1993), Strange again emphasises the structural characteristics of US power in the global system and suggest that Britain's structural power was more long lasting than is sometimes presumed, with clear implications for the continuing power of the US in the global economy.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power; United Kingdom

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, United Kingdom, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1994

Foreword

Strange, Susan. In Transcending the State-Global Divide: A Neostructuralist Agenda in International Relations, edited by Ronen P. Palan, Barry Gills, vii-viii. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1994.

This is merely a brief supportive introduction to a collection of papers which were developed from a seminar organised by Strange at the European University Institute, Florence in May 1990.

Keywords: Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Ronen P. Palan and Editor: Barry Gills
Keywords: Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

From Bretton Woods to the Casino Economy

Strange, Susan. In Money, Power and Space, edited by Stuart Corbridge, Ron Martin, Nigel Thrift, 49-62. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.

Strange argues as she has frequently done for the importance of historical understanding power in the international financial structure is to be fully analysed. She suggests that there are two separate but linked aspects of the global political economy that need to be thought about within the financial structure - the international monetary system and the international financial system. Thus, Strange focuses on credit creation to examine the upheavals in the financial structure and the decline of the Bretton Woods system. She also suggests that acquiescence in the uneven distribution of the benefits derived from financial 'freedom' may be becoming less assured in the post Cold War global system. While larger states have (at least for the time being) managed to retain some of their power in the financial structure, smaller states have seen a decline in their ability to resist the pressures from the international money markets. Once again Strange discusses the shift in power from states to markets, and implicitly reinforces her arguments for the centrality of structural power considerations.

Keywords: Authority; Markets; Money and Finance; States; Structural Power, Power; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Stuart Corbridge and Editor: Ron Martin
Keywords: Authority, Markets, Money and Finance, States, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

Global Government and Global Opposition

Strange, Susan. In Politics in an Interdependent World: Essays presented to Ghita Ionescu, edited by Geraint Parry, 20-33. Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publishers, 1994.

After recognising the relevance of discussions of a 'new medievalism' in the global political economy Strange suggests that the best way of addressing the nature and use of power is her structural model. She suggests that the deterriotrialisation of power and the increasing importance of 'diplomacy' between firms as laid out in Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991), argues for a more complex view of 'interdependence'. She then highlights three central issues: the idea that the operations of multinationals might be understood as a parallel and competing tax and welfare system to that previously operated by states; this relative loss of control over social functions by states has led to reduced stability in the global economy; and lastly societies have increasingly lost their ability to make autonomous decisions concerning methods of and priorities of governance. She then links this analysis to the re-emergence of Euroscepticism, before finally identifying some possible groups that may offer opposition to these tendencies, namely environmentalism, feminism, fundamentalism and regionalism.

Keywords: Corporations; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Geraint Parry
Keywords: Corporations, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

Rethinking Structural Change in the International Political Economy: States, Firms and Diplomacy

Strange, Susan. In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, edited by Richard Stubbs, Geoffrey R.D. Underhill, 103-115. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press, 1994.

This is an abridged version and slightly revised version of 'States, Firms and Diplomacy' (1992).

Keywords: Knowledge; Markets; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Richard Stubbs and Editor: Geoffrey R.D. Underhill
Keywords: Knowledge, Markets, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

The 'Fall' of the United States: Peace, Stability, and Legitimacy

Strange, Susan. In The Fall of Great Powers: Peace, Stability and Legitimacy, edited by Geir Lundestad, 197-211. Oslo and Oxford: Scandinavian University Press and Oxford University Press, 1994.

Once again Strange argues at length that the notion of American decline in the global system is mistaken if examined through her structural perspective. She presents a brief history of the previous fifty years to explore how America's 'fall' can be proposed and why this misunderstands power in the global system. She uses this insight to argue for an International Political Economy approach to the problem of American hegemony, but she also warns that technological changes feeding into structural changes may make drawing lessons from the decline of previous hegemons difficult if not impossible. She concludes that while structural change may offer the best chance for a more just and peaceful system, it may also open up the possibility of extensive disorder and insecurity in the future, leading to problems of legitimate rule and authority.

Keywords: Hegemony; Structural Power, Power; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Geir Lundestad
Keywords: Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, United States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

The Power Gap: Member States and the World Economy

Strange, Susan. In Economic Policy Making and the European Union, edited by Frank Brouwer, Valerio Linter, Mike Newman, 19-26. London: Federal Trust, 1994.

Strange criticises arguments that suggest the European Union is a sui generis political institution. She criticises such claims, self avowedly, not from a lengthy engagement with European political analysis, but from a more global concern with political economy. She suggests that except for the Commission there is little to distinguish the EU from some other intergovernmental organisations. And given the Commission's inability to move on anything but essentially trivial matters she remains sceptical of the entire European project, remaining as she contends merely a sophisticated free-trade area. The problem, however, is not a particularly European one; the decline of state power vis-a-vis the global economy has been evident for some time. Only by recognising the problems for sovereign political authorities in the global political economy and planning for new constitutional developments in Europe to address this problem can this 'power gap' be narrowed. Strange here implicitly draws on the elements of her work that have supported the 'state-in-decline' thesis even though at other times she seems less willing to accept the absolute decline of state power than such arguments suggest.

Keywords: Europe; Global Governance; States; Global System; European Integration

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Frank Brouwer and Editor: Valerio Linter
Keywords: Europe, Global Governance, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

The Structure of Finance in the World System

Strange, Susan. In Global Transformation: Challenges to the State System, edited by Yoshikazu Sakamoto, 228-249. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1994.

Strange again stresses, as she has done before, that the crucial element of the financial structure is the ability to create credit. This is only one side of the financial structure, however - the other side is the institutional regulation of exchange rates between currencies. Much of the work on the international financial has been compromised by its emphasis on the state due to the fore grounding of the exchange rate part of the structure. Strange then suggests and describes five key changes in the structure: its growth in size; new technologies; the penetration of national financial systems by global financial capital; the increasing competition and declining regulation in credit provision; and the relation between supply and demand. Using a global monetarist perspective Strange sees global inflation linked with the oversupply of credit by banks, stemming from the previous four changes. However, American power in the financial structure still remains, measured by their ability to act unilaterally in the field of global finance. Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy, edited by Roger Tooze and Christopher May. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Yoshikazu Sakamoto
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

Wake Up, Krasner! The World has Changed

Strange, Susan. Review of International Political Economy 1, no. 2 (1994): 209-219.

Strange offers a criticism of Krasner's realist position, drawing on her recent work and an understanding of structural power. She also offers brief critiques of political and economic liberalism as being essentially internally inconsistent, before suggesting that it is they rather than the 'societal' approaches that are having theoretical problems with recent developments in the international political economy. Realism and liberalism lack the heuristic power of her own (and others) structuralist approach. She concludes by arguing that all the many different groups of actors/interests in the international system must be recognised and analysed not just states.

Keywords: Global Governance; Theory; Structural Power, Power; Realism; Global System

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Global Governance, Theory, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1994

Who Governs? Networks of Power in World Society

Strange, Susan. Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics Special Issue (1994): 5-17.

Starting from Strange's response to Waltz's (in)famous London School of Economic lecture (see Millennium 22/2 - Summer 1993) in this article she first argues for a wider reading of politics – not just what states do. She then briefly summarises her arguments regarding structural power before discussing the roles states have historically played as producers of security, credit, market relations and environment. The power over finance and environment has moved to centre stage, but states have been losing relative power over these areas. But this is not to agree with the America-in-decline writers. Rather Strange argues that the US. retains structural power, which the non-US Group of Seven states, through joint action need to encourage Americans to recognise. This will enable the US. to once again act as hegemon for the general good. America's ability to supply market public goods needs to be matched by its will to do so, through diplomatic pressure. This is one of the few pieces where Strange makes her underlying prescriptive stance on the need for American leadership completely explicit. Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy, edited by Roger Tooze and Christopher May. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Keywords: Hegemony; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, United States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1994

The Transformation of the World Economy

Strange, Susan. In Mapping the Unknown: Towards a New World Order (Yearbook of the Swedish Institute for International Affairs 1992-1993), edited by Lidija Babic, Bo Huldt, 43-49. London: Hurst and Co., 1993.

In this short article Strange reviews many of the same arguments that have been featured above. However, here she argues that the transformation of the world economy is not so much the product of state/firm interactions, rather it is firms that are playing (and will continue to play) the more important role in structural change. This finally represents a complete reversal of the position of 'Follow-up commentary On Money and World Politics' (1984). Strange also argues that the supposed problems of the emergence of trading blocs (the three main blocs being centred on the US, Japan and Europe - the triad) are not crucial to the stability of the global economy, as she had implicitly argued in her discussions of protectionism. The problems and structural transformation of the global economy are rooted in the financial structure, and it is here that the US needs to assert its leadership for the future good of the international system.

Keywords: Corporations; Global Governance; Hegemony; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Transnational Corporations; Global System

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Lidija Babic and Editor: Bo Huldt
Keywords: Corporations, Global Governance, Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1993