Working Paper

What Theory? The Theory in Mad Money (CSGR Working Paper No. 18/98)

Strange, Susan. Coventry: University of Warwick/Centre for the Study of Globalisation and Regionalisation, 1998.

In this, her final piece of writing, Strange reprise arguments from Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991) and The Retreat of the State. The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (1996) to argue that the disciplines of International Relations and International Economics fail to understand contemporary globalisation. Where IR scholars have missed the structural shifts in the global system away from state-centric power with the emergence of new non-state authority, economists have missed the role of the state in promoting these changes, and misunderstand the working of global markets, discounting, or not even recognising the political relations between firms, what Strange refers to as the new diplomacy. In this last piece Strange revisits the criticisms she has levelled at much of mainstream International Studies literature and remains as angry as ever at the myopia of many of her contemporaries, leading to a failure to recognise the real problems of the 'global casino', not least of all issues of finance and technology.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Authority, Markets, Money and Finance, States, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Working Paper

Year of Publication: 1998

Traitors, Double Agents or Rescuing Knights

Strange, Susan. Working Paper for Table Ronde No. 4 ‘Les Individus dans la Politique Internatioanle’. Association Française de Science Politique, Quatrième Congrès, 1992.

In this working paper Strange links her approach laid out in States and Markets (1988) and links it to the research she had recently published on the role of firms in the global system Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991). This leads her to conclude that a greater role for firms (and their decision-makers, their managers) must be recognised by social science, and that the 'nation state' is less and less useful as a concept for the study of the global system. Once again Strange's frustration with the myopia of her colleagues is scarcely concealed.

Keywords: Corporations; Global governance; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Transnational Corporations; Global System

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Corporations, Global governance, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Working Paper

Year of Publication: 1992

Europe 1992 - Some Personal Observations (SAIIA occasional paper)

Strange, Susan. Johannesburg: South African Institute of International Affairs, 1990.

In this record of a personal address, Strange suggests the 1992 project served both the European collective interest (in the face of Asian and American competition) and the national interests of the major European states (France and Germany), though as notes Britain's position is less clear cut. Post 1992 Strange suggests the democratic deficit (in European institutions), finance (the European Central Bank, co-ordination of banking regulations and the single currency), defence (and public procurement), reciprocity in international trade, and R&D are areas which are likely to be the most important for governments to attend to. But she also notes that identifying the boundaries of Europe, social (welfare) policy, immigration and national restrictive practices are all problems which though currently marginal will be aggravated by 1992.

Keywords: Europe; European Integration

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Europe, 1990's
Source and Medium: Working Paper

Year of Publication: 1990