Book Chapter

The United States and World Trade: Hegemony by Proxy?

Goldstein, Judith. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 349-272. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: United States; Structural Power, Power; Trade

Contributor(s): Judith Goldstein, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: United States, Structural Power, Power, Trade, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Theorizing the 'No-Man's Land' Between Politics and Economics

Cutler, A. Claire. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 181-196. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Theory; Production; Structural Power, Power; Knowledge

Contributor(s): A. Claire Cutler, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Theory, Production, Structural Power, Power, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

World Order, Non-State Actors, and the Global Casino: The Retreat of the State?

Strange, Susan. In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, edited by Richard Stubbs, Geoffrey R.D. Underhill, 82-90. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

This is the an edited version of the text published as What Theory? The Theory in Mad Money (1998) with the addition of a new introduction which briefly lays out many of the arguments which Strange made her own over her long and distinguished career.

Keywords: Corporations; Knowledge; States; Theory; Authority vs Markets; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Richard Stubbs and Editor: Geoffrey R.D. Underhill
Keywords: Corporations, Knowledge, States, Theory, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Why do International Organisations Never Die?

Strange, Susan. In Autonomous Policy Making by International Organisations, edited by Bob Reinalda, Bertjan Verbeek, 213-220. London: Routledge, 1998.

In this concluding chapter of a collection of articles drawn from a series of workshops organised under the auspices of the ECPR, Strange reflects on the legacy of The Anatomy of Influence see (1974b) and suggests that a focus on international organisation remains a largely European enterprise due to the continuing dominance of liberal institutionalism and (neo)Realism. After applauding the project in the first section, she then turns to some criticisms of the collection's contributors. She suggests that some of the authors have been unable to avoid capture by their subjects and are too kind to the self-perpetuating bureaucracies and secretariats of many international organisations. She argues that these bureaucracies have a symbiotic relationship with the members' governments and thus are able to ride out many local problems. Lastly she briefly alludes (again) to the failure to include the impact of changes in market conditions, changes in technology and the role of MNCs in the international political economic analysis of international organisations.

Keywords: Corporations; Europe; International Institutions; Theory; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Bob Reinalda and Editor: Bertjan Verbeek
Keywords: Corporations, Europe, International Institutions, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1998

An International Political Economy Perspective

Strange, Susan. In Governments, Globalization, and International Business, edited by John H. Dunning, 132-145. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

In this chapter Strange lays out her idea of what International Political Economy is, including a wide-ranging view of politics (not just the activities of politicians and governments) and a focus on structural power. This then leads her to discuss the problems that globalisation presents for governments, business and people. She concludes that these problems require a re-examination of authority and justice both by states and by international business and adopting an IPE perspective facilitates such analysis. By trying to make a bridge between business research and international relations Strange returns again to the theme of breaking down disciplinary boundaries, see for instance 'International Political Economy: Reuniting three fields of intellectual endeavour' (1989).

Keywords: Globalization; Political Economy; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: John H. Dunning
Keywords: Globalization, Political Economy, Theory, 1990's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

Territory, State, Authority and Economy: A New Realist Ontology of Global Political Economy

Strange, Susan. In The New Realism: Perspectives on Multilateralism and World Order, edited by Robert W. Cox, 3-19. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press/United Nations University Press, 1997.

Strange argues that the global economy is in the midst of a transition; the close incidence of political authority, economic activity and geographical territory no longer holds. This has been caused by two main groups of factors: firstly changes derived from science and technology; and secondly structural changes within the global finance structure. Authority has shifted, or is shifting, from states to other actors in the international political economy. She disputes Rosenau's hypothesis of the emergence of a second world of turbulent complexity, disturbing the old world of international relations, instead arguing that it is all the same world, just more complex! Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy. Roger Tooze and Christopher May, editors. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Keywords: Authority; Knowledge; Markets; Money and Finance; States; Authority vs Markets; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Robert W. Cox
Keywords: Authority, Knowledge, Markets, Money and Finance, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

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

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

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

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

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

Ethics and the Movement of Money: Realist Approaches

Strange, Susan. In Free Movement. Ethical Issues in Transnational Migration of People and Money, edited by Brian Barry, Robert E. Goodin, 232-247. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992.

Identifying herself as a Realist, Strange notes that there is not one easily defined Realist perspective on the ethics of international monetary flows. Focusing on the continued existence and relative power of states she explores the problems these flows cause for states and stability in the international system overall. Here she examines international debt, free trade and protectionism, the transfer of profits, and but-outs or take-overs. Strange still seems to have some confidence that the state may play a useful regulatory and political role in economic affairs, a position she would move away from by the end of her career in 'The Defective State' (1995) and The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (1996) and elsewhere.

Keywords: Money and Finance; States; Realism

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Brian Barry and Editor: Robert E. Goodin
Keywords: Money and Finance, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1992

An Eclectic Approach

Strange, Susan. In The New International Political Economy (International Political Economy Year Book No. 6), edited by Craig N. Murphy, Roger Tooze, 33-49. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1991.

Strange reiterates the structural dimensions of power from States and Markets (1988) and then goes on to develop this further by adding three conditioning factors that influence the structural elements of power - these are states, markets and technology. Essentially the new element here is the dynamic of technology. Strange makes the contribution of the technological dynamic to the four structures more explicit in this article than previously. She then concludes by again stressing the need for interdisciplinary understanding of IPE and how this should influence the teaching of the subject.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Craig N. Murphy and Editor: Roger Tooze
Keywords: Theory, Markets, States, Structural Power, Power, 1990's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1991

Economic Linkages 1967-87

Strange, Susan. In The West and the Third World: Essays in Honour of J.D.B. Miller, edited by Robert O'Neill, John Vincent, 224-241. Basingstoke: Macmillan Academic and Professional, 1990.

In this article Strange sets Miller's work into the context of the analysis of international relations. Her central argument is two-fold - firstly, changes in the international political economy can only by understood through an analysis of structural power. And again she explicitly recognises the Marxist approach as both powerful and incomplete. She then stresses the continuing if changing role of the state, and state based authority. She suggests that this accounts for the continuing appeal of Realism. Having discussed a number of changes in international relations, she attributes to her former colleague (Miller was at Chatham House at the same time she was) a perspective consistent with her own.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Theory; Realism; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Robert O'Neill and Editor: John Vincent
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1990

The Name of the Game

Strange, Susan. In Sea Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed, edited by Nicholas X. Rizopoulos, 238-273. New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1990.

Strange develops an argument that the competition for territory in international relations has been superseded by the competition for world market shares. This decline in the importance in territory has engendered among other things an international business civilisation that is based on firms and enterprises rather than nationality. However this seems to be different from the transnational empire she suggests in 'Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire' (1989). This central change in the international political economy, has led to a diffusion of state power, but still leaves the US the most powerful actor in the world. Strange argues that power is shifting from a territorial state basis, to a transnational enterprise basis. However this power is geographical, centred on such cities as New York and Los Angeles, not as before on Washington DC. This article marks a significant step towards the analysis of firms as being as important as states for Strange's IPE, fully developed in Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991) .

Keywords: Corporations; Markets; Theory; Structural Power, Power; International Economics; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Nicholas X. Rizopoulos
Keywords: Corporations, Markets, Theory, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1990

I Never Meant to be an Academic

Strange, Susan. In Journeys Through World Politics: Autobiographical Reflections of Thirty-four Academic Travellers, edited by James Kruzel, James N. Roseneau, 429-436. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1989.

This brief autobiographical essay makes interesting reading and, if one so chooses, may give clues to the personal foundations for Strange's approach. The essay is weighted towards her earlier life but is none the less informative for that. 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: Other; Personal Reflection

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: James Kruzel and Editor: James N. Roseneau
Keywords: Other, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1989

The Persistence of Problems in EC-US Relations: Conflicts of Perception?

Strange, Susan. In The External Relations of the European Community, in Particular EC-US Relations, edited by Jürgen Schwarze, 109-118. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlasgesellschaft, 1989.

Strange suggests that the two primary activities of any political organisation are the furtherance of security and the control of money, and it is these issues that remain at the centre of the problem of US-Europe relations. Here Strange again challenges the assumption of a loss of American hegemony (and therefore power) in the global system. This leads her to emphasise the need for both political will by the system's strongest state as well as international and multilateral efforts to attend to the problems of the global system, for it is different perception on either side of the Atlantic of America's potential to act which are causing continued friction. While the Europeans see an America unwilling to act, the US Government claims it cannot act.

Keywords: Europe; Hegemony; Money and Finance; Security; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Jürgen Schwarze
Keywords: Europe, Hegemony, Money and Finance, Security, United States, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1989