Book Chapter

A Border Seeping in All Directions: Technologies of Separation Along the U.S.-Mexico Border in Ambos Nogales

Allison Fish. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 247-272. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

This chapter examines how legal and regulatory concerns have informed the design, selection, and deployment of technological assemblages used to monitor commercial movements along the U.S.-Mexico border in and around Ambos Nogales (Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona, United States). In the past few decades there has been an increasing concern regarding the balancing of market interests with national security at border ports-of-entry, leading to an intensified monitoring of these narrow commercial chokepoints. At the same time, the surveillance of commercial trade moving through these constrained channels has rapidly transitioned from face-to-face and paper-based mediums to complex systems composed of numerous digital and visualisation technologies. This chapter documents this transition in Ambos Nogales and, in doing so, examines how new technologies have historically been used to identify “trusted” logistics providers and monitor and “control” the flow of goods involved in legitimate commercial trade.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Allison Fish, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Security, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

A Strange Approach to Information, Network, Sharing, and Platform Societies

Bannerman Sara, Angela Orasch. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 53-80. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Susan Strange’s framework for international political economic analysis emphasises the importance of the interrelationships between what she saw as four interlinked structures and sources of power in the global economy: security, production, finance, and knowledge. As change occurs in one structure, it is important to systematically consider the implications of such changes in the other four structures. This chapter provides an overview of how the knowledge structure interacts with the other three structures of power. Second, it assesses the extent to which four major works related to transformations in the knowledge structure—Daniel Bell’s The Coming of the Post-Industrial Society (1976), Manuel Castells’ trilogy The Network Society (first published 1996–1998), Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks (2006), and Nick Srnicek’s Platform Capitalism (2017)—examine the interrelationships between Strange’s four structures, and the consequences for their overall conclusions.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security; Finance; Production

Contributor(s): Sara Bannerman, Angela Orasch, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Security, Finance, Production, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Conclusion: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Natasha Tusikov, Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Kathryn Henne, 285-306. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Our goal in this book was to spur an inter- and multi-disciplinary dialogue on the rising importance of knowledge in the global political economy and the role of knowledge in contemporary governance. Each of the chapters critically reflects on the control over knowledge as an important form of power, interactions between state and non-state actors, and knowledge regulation in its many forms. Knowledge regulation entails considering how and why knowledge is legitimised and by whom, the interests served, and the specific power structures underlying these arrangements. To understand the dynamics of a world dominated by the knowledge structure, we need to focus on the rules and norms that shape the legitimation, creation, use, and dissemination of knowledge, as well as those who are shaping these rules, which includes the state and non-state actors, and the interests being served.

Keywords: Knowledge

Contributor(s): Natasha Tusikov, Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Disinformation and Resistance in the Surveillance of Indigenous Protesters

Kathryn Henne, Jenna Harb. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 187-212. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

The U.S. and Canadian governments have long engaged in the surveillance of Indigenous peoples. Such practices have garnered public attention in light of recent events. This chapter reflects on two examples: protests against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline that crossed over the lands of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the United States and the release of details regarding Project SITKA—a Canadian Royal Mounted Police “dataveillance” operation identifying and tracking Indigenous activists. It examines them to illuminate the strategic use of information, particularly disinformation and misinformation, by government actors, media, private security personnel, and protesters. In particular, the analysis highlights how settler colonialism informs the asymmetrical power dynamics at work, illustrating connections between Project SITKA and the Standing Rock protests.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Kathryn Henne, Jenna Harb, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Internet Infrastructure and the Persistent Myth of U.S. Hegemony

Dwayne Winseck. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 93-120. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

According to many observers, economic globalisation and the liberalisation of telecoms/internet policy have remade the world in the image of the United States. The dominant role of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google has also led to charges of U.S. internet imperialism. This chapter, however, will argue that while these internet giants dominate some of the most popular internet services, the ownership and control of core elements of the internet infrastructure—submarine cables, IXPs, ASN, data centres, and so on—is tilting increasingly towards the EU and BRICS countries and the “rest-of-the-world,” complicating views of hegemonic U.S. control of the internet and of what Susan Strange calls the knowledge structure.

Keywords: Knowledge; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Dwayne Winseck, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Introduction

Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 1-20. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

While the control of knowledge is becoming the dominant means by which economic, political, and social control is exerted globally, the mechanisms through which this is happening—including intellectual property rights, state and commercial surveillance, digitisation and datafication, and a nearly ubiquitous internet mediating human interactions—are often examined separately instead of as part of a larger phenomenon of knowledge governance. This edited volume brings experts in these areas from across the social sciences to explore these areas as forms of knowledge governance, by adopting the understudied (at least from a knowledge-governance perspective) work of the late International Political Economy scholar Susan Strange, notably her concept of a knowledge structure. In this chapter, we present an introduction to and critique of Strange’s theory of the knowledge structure and offer an overview of this volume’s chapters.

Contributor(s): Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Theory, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Work, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Precarious Ownership of the Internet of Things in the Age of Data

Tusikov, Natasha. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 121-148. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT)—internet-connected software embedded within physical products—has the potential to shift fundamentally traditional conceptions of ownership and the ways people can access, use, and control information. Drawing upon a knowledge regulation framework influenced by Susan Strange, this chapter argues that the IoT industry exemplifies the central role that knowledge governance now plays in the global political economy. The chapter examines how companies that own the knowledge integral to the IoT’s functionality (the software) control that knowledge through intellectual property laws, especially copyright, and the ubiquitous surveillance of their customers. These companies retain control over the software even after its purchase, meaning they have a newly expanded regulatory capacity to monitor and control how their products are used. The private post-purchase control that IoT companies exert over smart goods represents a significant change in private actors’ regulatory capacity to set rules governing knowledge.

Keywords: Knowledge; Production

Contributor(s): Natasha Tusikov, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Production, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Reflection I

Germain, Randall. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 81-89. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Randall Germain reflects on the chapters by Blayne Haggart, and Sara Bannerman and Angela Orasch.

Keywords: Knowledge

Contributor(s): Randall Germain, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Reflection II

Carr, Madeline. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 149-160. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Madeline Carr reflects on the chapters by Dwayne Winseck and Natasha Tusikov.

Keywords: Knowledge

Contributor(s): Madeline Carr, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Reflection III

Haggart, Blayne. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century. Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, editors. 213-218. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Blayne Haggart reflects on the chapters by Debora Halbert, and Jenna Harb and Kathryn Henne.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Blayne Haggart, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Reflection IV

Musto, Jennifer. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 273-284. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Jennifer Musto reflects on the chapters by Kathryn Henne and Allison Fish.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Jennifer Musto, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Security, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Surveillance in the Name of Governance: Aadhaar as a Fix for Leaking Systems in India

Kathryn Henne. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 223-246. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

Many jurisdictions are employing biometric technologies to collect data about and verify the identities of social assistance recipients, with fraud prevention and cost savings serving as common justifications for doing so. This chapter explores the practices of building the infrastructure to monitor welfare beneficiaries, many of whom are vulnerable or marginalised populations. To do so, the chapter examines the Aadhaar system in India, which has issued over one billion unique identification numbers since being launched in 2010. The analysis illustrates a one-way expectation of knowledge and transparency (i.e., for citizens to disclose in order to access services), drawing attention to how nationalist agendas and forms of inequality inform who is subject to the state’s terms and conditions. In doing so, it considers how these forms of surveillance evince broader shifts in which state and non-state actors rely on knowledge to regulate subjects.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Kathryn Henne, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Security, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Taking Knowledge Seriously: Towards an International Political Economy Theory of Knowledge Governance

Haggart, Blayne. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 25-52. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

The treatment of knowledge—most notably commodified knowledge—as a source and vector of power is a key blind spot in our understanding of the global political economy. This chapter offers a theoretical framework, based on the work of Susan Strange, for considering the relationship between what she called the “knowledge structure” and the other key sources of political and economic power—security, production, and finance. This framework is applied to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (now the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (concluded in September 2018), demonstrating how a direct focus on knowledge governance reveals power relations and economic effects that are otherwise obscured.

Keywords: Theory; Knowledge

Contributor(s): Blayne Haggart, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Theory, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Weaponising Copyright: Cultural Governance and Regulating Speech in the Knowledge Economy

Halbert, Debora J. In Information, Technology and Control in a Changing World: Understanding Power Structures in the 21st Century, edited by Blayne Haggart, Kathryn Henne, Natasha Tusikov, 165-186. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.

This chapter investigates the political and cultural implications of regulating speech via copyright. After an exploration of copyright governance within the context of Susan Strange’s knowledge structure framework, this chapter discusses cultural governance through copyright as a mode of censorship. I take up two recent examples where copyright was weaponised to curb speech. The first is an effort to control the speech of a controversial YouTube star. The second is an effort to curb the association of a cartoon character with white supremacy. In both cases, copyright performs a normative, not commercial, function, as copyright owners exert their control over their creative work to limit the expression of others. There is much to be troubled by regarding both the resurgence of white supremacy and the use of copyright to shape what can and cannot be expressed.

Keywords: Knowledge; Security

Contributor(s): Debora J. Halbert, Editor: Blayne Haggart, Editor: Kathryn Henne and Editor: Natasha Tusikov
Keywords: Knowledge, Security, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2019

Ahead of her Time? Susan Strange and Global Governance

Sell, Susan K. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 39-50. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that Strange's work is of enduring significance because it helps us forge a practical understanding of critical global problems. Global environmental problems, global financial crises, and global inequalities are three of the small set of global problems regularly pointed to by promoters of the new global public policy degree programs established over the last decade. In the contemporary world, the knowledge structure serves the production and financial structures, not the other way around. Strange's analysis contains an argument about the recent wave of economic globalization. She sees the globalization of private finance and the globalization of production as, in part, responses to changes in technology to things like containerized shipping and the Internet changes that came from that contemporary knowledge structure. The programs like the one that Mahbubani created at NUS with Kofi Annan reflect a global governance paradigm that emphasizes subsidiary as a way to enhance both accountability and legitimacy.

Keywords: Global Governance; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Susan K. Sell and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Global Governance, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Corporate Power in a Global Economy

Palan, Ronen. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 170-182. London: Routledge, 2016.

What is the nature of the powers of corporations in a globalized economy? Has there been a shift of power from states to corporations? From states to markets? And if yes, how and why? These are the sort of questions that were at heart of Susan Strange's work. Political science during the time of her writing, and even more so international relations, was occupied with forms of relational power (Tajfel and Turner 1979). These theories assumed that an existential condition of scarcity (of material or ideational goods) encourages the formation of collective action groups, each intent on advancing or protecting their vested interests. Political scientists would use key concepts such as actors, intentions, interests and power, which, in combination were supposed to provide the analyst with a good grasp over policy outcomes.

Keywords: Corporations; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Ronen Palan and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Corporations, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Diagnosing the Human Condition in a Dynamic Global System

Pauly, Louis W. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 183-192. London: Routledge, 2016.

Virgil's 'rerum cognoscere causas,' adorns the crest of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 'To know the cause of things' expressed an abiding aspiration for Susan Strange, even if she doubted all absolute truth-claims. In the mid-1970s, after she had rejoined her alma mater as a lecturer in the International Relations Department, I attended her course on 'The Politics of International Business.' As we know now, she was then helping to lay the foundations for a field that would soon be called 'international political economy.' In other places during the same period of time, Professors Kindleberger, Cox, Gilpin, Keohane, Krasner, Katzenstein, and Cohen were also working to carve out the intellectual space where history, economics, international relations, political science, and management studies would fruitfully intersect during the next four decades (Cohen 2008a).

Keywords: Theory

Contributor(s): Louis W. Pauly and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Theory, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Money, Power, Authority

Cohen, Benjamin J. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 129-143. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter discusses the political economy of the global transformation. The share of American gross domestic product (GDP) in relation to global GDP had declined; the control of American corporations over key international markets remained high and was even growing. Strange argued that the global articulation of power was constituted by a complicated amalgam of public and the private authority. The superior innovative capacities of the firms, bolstered by government-sponsored military research, bestowed onto certain segments of the Americas economy, an unalloyed competitive advantage. The financial crisis began in the US financial system, even if it was aided and abetted by global forces and dynamics. The Carr suggests through his analysis of the foundations of mass society in the middle years of the twentieth century, when society exerts pressure on the operation of government, government in turn becomes much more involved in society, including the economy and its financial system.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Authority; Markets; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Benjamin J. Cohen and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Authority, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Shaping the World Beyond the 'Core': States and Markets in Brazil's Global Assent

Tussie, Diana. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 73-86. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that the global financial crisis of 2008 presented a unique opportunity to re-visit them and to re-evaluate Strange's core argument about the enduring structural power of the US in global finance. It explains how this power was particularly apparent in two international developments that took place at the height of the crisis: the US international lender-of-last-resort role and the absence of a dollar crisis. The chapter argues that an analysis of these two developments not only demonstrates the validity of Strange's argument about the US position in global finance but also provides a chance to clarify some analytical aspects of Strange's concept of structural power. The experience of the 2008 crisis demonstrates how structural power in global finance provides a number of benefits to the US, ranging from the unique influence it had in politics of crisis resolution to the unusual macroeconomic flexibility that stemmed from foreign support of the dollar.

Keywords: States; Markets; Structural Power, Power; Authority

Contributor(s): Diana Tussie and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: States, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Still an Extraordinary Power After All These Years: The US and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008

Helleiner, Eric. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 111-126. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explores Strange's analysis of the centrality of dominant knowledge and financial structures in the constitution of the contours of the global political economy and of financial capitalism. It draws upon critical political economy, focusing on the how of power and its mobilization through dominant knowledge and financial structures to establish central bank independence and financial liberalization as grundnorms of the global financial system. In seeking to develop a sociological understanding of the construction of dominant power structures, the chapter draws upon critical political economy traditions inspired by the works of Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci. Strange identified the central problematique as a problem of governance and the absence of the leadership required to address the economic malaise of the 1980s. This chapter examines Strange's analysis of problems in global financial leadership and it reveals her significant contribution to the understanding of the material dimensions of financial governance.

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

Contributor(s): Eric Helleiner and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Strange Bedfellows? Bankers, Business(men) and Bureaucrats in Global Financial Governance

Cutler, A. Claire. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 144-169. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explains how to diagnose the human condition in a dynamic global system. Strange was the one who insisted that the things to be explained were not always what they seemed, and that theory, especially the grand theory, could obscure the fundamental realities. Discerning the causes and the larger meanings behind the social and political arrangements through which these values are distributed in the particular global policy arenas framed Strange's IPE. Murphy focused on the capital markets that are not reliably backstopped by the emergency fiscal capabilities, and therefore not reliably regulated; expansive systems for producing goods and the services that depend on degrading the life-sustaining bio-sphere; and the absence of redistributive instruments adequate enough to stabilize an emerging global society. Helleiner used the conceptual and the empirical grounding to show us precisely how the global financial system worked during the crisis of 2008.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Authority; Westfailure System

Contributor(s): A. Claire Cutler and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Strange Power Over Credit; or the Enduring Strength of US Structural-Power

Schwartz, Herman Mark. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 87-110. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter provides some retrospective comments on what Strange says on the nexus of money and power; and second, in the light of what she had to say, to assess her vision of where the monetary system is heading. Strange was certainly right that the dynamics of power and governance in global finance today are changing. A leaderless diffusion of power is generating greater uncertainty about the underlying rules of the game. The linkage between money and power was one of the most enduring themes in Strange's work. The US political scientists, Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, had pointed out that the direct action represented just one face of power, and perhaps not even the most important. The causal mechanism works along the lines of the sequential Stackelberg leadership model of game theory. The United States acts unilaterally, as it typically does, exploiting what is often described as its exorbitant privilege.

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

Contributor(s): Herman Mark Schwartz and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Susan Strange and the Future of IPE

Germain, Randall. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 19-36. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explains how contributors use Susan Strange's rich conceptual framework to explore the financial crisis and its aftermath, and reflect critically on broader contributions which her work has made to the discipline of international political economy (IPE). Susan Strange's life and times spanned the most tumultuous decades of the twentieth century. Susan Strange spent much of her academic career lamenting and cataloguing the serial failure of scholarship in political science, international relations and international economics to understand how the world and its political economy had changed or was in the process of changing. The global demand for American credit during the financial crisis both fed off and reinforced the pre-existing American capacity to generate and deploy the financial resources. The Strange was an inveterate optimist that things on the ground could be improved upon, if only analysis was sound and the determination to act was both robustly held and appropriately grounded in sustainable values that were widely shared.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Randall Germain and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

The Political Economy of Global Transformation: Susan Strange, E.H. Carr and the Dynamics of Structural Change

Germain, Randall. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 183-200. London: Routledge 2016.

Do international relations precede or follow (logically) fundamental social relations? There can be no doubt that they follow. Any organic innovation in the social structure, through its technical–military expressions, modifies organically absolute and relative relations in the international field too.

Keywords: Hegemony; Authority; Markets; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Randall Germain and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Hegemony, Authority, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

The Westfailure System' Fifteen Years on: Global Problems, What Makes Them Difficult to Solve and the Role of IPE

Murphy, Craig N. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 51-70. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that some of Susan Strange's insights hold heuristic value that remains underused in the literature that is emerging from the regions, on the regions, and in the wider international political economy (IPE) field itself. In a nutshell, a closer examination of the regions out there can reveal important scope conditions for understanding the structural re-organization of the global political economy which may otherwise be missed. Susan Strange's analysis of business and power opens up the possibility of looking at developing countries as makers and not just takers of international policy. It reinforces the call today for IPE to move on and speak to a new global landscape. This narrative is certainly consistent with the institutional turn in development theory. Internationalization beyond the core also marks a new stage in development. Fiscal solvency has changed the character of the state, enabling it to provide centrally mandated subsidized credit.

Keywords: Authority; Structural Power, Power; Westfailure System; General Framework

Contributor(s): Craig N. Murphy and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Authority, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016