Susan Strange's Work

This page contains the searchable annotated bibliography of all of Susan Strange’s academic writing. Edited by Christopher May, Randall Germain, and J.E. Spence Reprinted with permission. To download the annotated bibliography as a PDF, click here

For copyright reasons, this site does not host any of Strange’s work, or of Strange-influenced work. Where available, we have provided links to external sites that host these works.

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Europe and the United States: The Transatlantic Aspects of Inflation

Strange, Susan. In The Politics of Inflation: A Comparative Analysis, edited by Richard Medley, 65-76. New York: Pergamon Press, 1982.

This short article discusses the international financial sector and the interaction between American monetary policy and European exchange rates, monetary policy and the then new European Monetary System. While containing little explication of structural power, being more of an historical overview, the article is of interest for Strange's concluding discussion of the reasons for American domination of the international financial structure. From these empirical reasons, there is a hint of the structural analysis that was implicitly being developed, not least of all because much of the evidence she cites re-emerges in later works regarding American economic hegemony.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Richard Medley
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1982

Looking Back - But Mostly Forward

Strange, Susan. Millennium: Journal of International Relations 11, no. 1 (1982): 38-49.

In this survey article, Strange looks back across the first ten years of Millennium to examine the development of International Relations, although as she makes plain she prefers the term International Studies. Having seen the field expand from a focus on the foreign polices of various states, she maps the increasing interest in the international system itself. However, she then argues that what is now needed is a further development of research into the structures of this system. This acts as a useful complement to the final section of ‘Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis' (1982) giving a discipline based context for her arguments regarding the development of her research programme for International Political Economy.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1982

Still an Extraordinary Power: America's Role in the Global Monetary System (Paper 3) (with discussants section)

Strange, Susan. In The Political Economy of Interdependence and Domestic Monetary Relations, edited by Raymond E. Lomra and Willard E. Witte, 73-93. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1982.

A paper delivered to a conference on international monetary relations. As well as considering power in the financial markets, Strange also makes a provisional (in light of her later work) analysis of structural power in the international political economy more generally. This analysis therefore widens out from an initial discussion of power in a specific sector (here the financial system) to examine the power of the U.S. more generally. While this includes elements of the later four dimensions - the idea of the authority/market balance and the security structure - her arguments here are not fully developed, as is evident from the rather heated discussion between her and the discussants (Robert Z. Alibar and Robert Solomon) that is reproduced following the main paper. A central part of the dispute is her refusal to separate out politics and economics, and define power in a narrow way, leading to veiled accusations of a lack of rigour, a not unfamiliar criticism.

Keywords: Authority; Hegemony; Structural Power, Power; Markets; Money and Finance; Political Economy

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Raymond E. Lombra and Editor: Willard E. Witte
Keywords: Authority, Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, Markets, Money and Finance, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1982

The Politics of Economics: A Sectoral Analysis

Strange, Susan. In Economic Issues and the Atlantic Community, edited by Wolfram F. Hanrieder, 15-26. New York: Praeger, 1982.

Strange here proposes a structural approach that is implied by her argument that an analysis of the global political economy must be concerned with its ‘environment’. However, while suggesting three of her four later structures - here, security, monetary and production structures - she also includes a number of other structures - transport, trade, communication - that would later become in her schema, secondary structures. Strange repeats her critique of the recent history of the discipline of IPE before suggesting that a need for sectoral analysis seems to be gaining currency. She briefly discusses the steel and aerospace sectors, to argue for the need to engage in a structuralist analysis of political economy. She also suggests that the ‘bargains’ that IPE should be concerned with include those between firms and governments and those between labour and firms. That is, she is arguing for an analysis that widens its analysis to include all sorts of non-state actors, and recognition of the global nature of the political economy.

Keywords: Production; Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Wolfram F. Hanrieder
Keywords: Production, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1980

Reactions to Brandt. Popular Acclaim and Academic Attack

Strange, Susan. International Studies Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1981): 328-342.

Strange’s ‘review of the reviews’ draws two distinctions between reactions to the Brandt Report - American and European, popular and academic. Her discussion briefly outlines the ‘global Keynsianism’ aspects of the report before noting the criticisms that were levelled at it. After noting that in the academy many of the analyses of the problems and ‘pie in the sky’ solutions were nothing new, her final lament is that the report continues to accept the curative value of research and knowledge, set aside from the political process. She concludes by arguing that the report cannot be safely dispensed with as whatever its faults and shortcomings it identifies major problems that will continue to beset the global system without some sort of political determination to address the problem of mal-distribution of welfare. The recognition of the importance of global political processes continues to be a central theme in her work.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Poltical Economy, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1981

The World's Money: Expanding the Agenda for Research

Strange, Susan. International Journal 36, no. 4 (1981): 691-712.

After a survey of current modes of thought, both academic and practitioner, Strange concludes that while much analysis can usefully illuminate the mechanisms of the global monetary system, there is little attempt ally this to a consideration how the system links up with and effects the values of and outcomes in a globalised society. She wants work on the international monetary system to go beyond a mere mechanical explanation and to move towards a more political analysis (which would also include an assessment of the impact of technology on global finance). In this she compares the study of the financial system unfavourably with the increasing sophisticated account of the global ecological system. Strange also briefly touches on the creation of credit and the transfer of risk which would be taken up subsequently in 'The Credit Crisis: A European View' (1983) and 'Structures, Values and Risk in the Study of the International Political Economy' (1983).

Keywords: Money and Finance; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Money and Finance, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1981

Germany and the World Monetary System

Strange, Susan. In West Germany: A European and Global Power, edited by Wilfrid L. Kohl and Georgio Basevi, 45-62. Lexington: Lexington Books, 1980.

Strange suggests that for any major state in the global system, such as Germany there are five roles that could be adopted by its government: ‘leader of the system’, ‘obedient ally’, ‘bigemonist partner’, ‘lone ranger’ or ‘leader of the opposition’. After discussing recent developments in the political economy of German and Europe, Strange suggests that it is time for Germany to consider a role more like that adopted briefly by De Gaulle’s France in the early 1960s, that of ‘leader of the opposition’. Essentially, Strange suggests that increasingly Germany must find the political will to match its growing economic importance in the global system.

Keywords: Europe; Money and Finance

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Wilfrid L Kohl and Ediotor: Georgio Basevi
Keywords: Europe, Money and Finance, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1980

Debt and Default in the International Political Economy

Strange, Susan. In Debt and the Less Developed Countries, edited by Jonathan David Aronson, 7-26. Boulder: Westview Press, 1979.

Explicitly linking back to 'Debts, Defaulters and Development' (1967) Strange examines the contemporary political economy of international debt, but also seeks to put this situation into a longer historical context than merely the previous ten years. Suggesting that states can choose to grow by direction (the socialist route) or via debt, she argues that recently the combination of the welfare state and more complex credit system has allowed many states to reduce the debt risk they explicitly face and therefore expand through the extensive use of credit. In the second part of the chapter she places the recent debt crises into the context of international credit since the mid-nineteenth century, and concludes that despite the supposed risks of default, historically the best growth rates have been in those countries extended the greatest credit (in Latin America). Furthermore, provided it is well managed there is nothing to indicate that a larger pool of credit (and therefore indebtedness) is any more problematic than a smaller pool, explicitly modifying her conclusion regarding the links between risky loans and political conflict in 'Debts, Defaulters and Development'.

Keywords: Money and Finance

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Johnathan David Aronson
Keywords: Money and Finance, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1979

The Mamagement of Surplus Capacity: Or How Does Theory Stand up to Protectionism 1970s style?

Strange, Susan. International Organisation 33, no. 3 (1979): 303-334.

In this article, which is a clear precursor to The Politics of International Surplus Capacity (with Roger Tooze, 1981), Strange discusses the management of surplus capacity in three sectors of the international economy - steel, textiles and shipbuilding, and the recourse to protectionism. She then goes on to discuss the problems this implies for mainstream theories of international economics. She argues that Liberalism, theories of development, and organisational or functionalist theories do not offer satisfactory explanations for the resurgence of tariff barriers. This is partly because none of these theories deal with economic power satisfactorily, though Strange offers little in the way of a corrective. She concludes by again arguing that it is increasingly difficult to draw a line between international and domestic policy, and thus theories that only deal with one or other side of this duality will by implication fail in their analysis. An earlier version was presented at the Tokyo meeting of the ISA, BISA and the Japan Association of International Relations in October 1977.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Production, Theory, Trade, Structural Power, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1979

The Management of Surplus Productive Capacity

Strange, Susan. In Economic Issues of the Eighties, edited by Nake M. Kamrany and Richard H. Day, 226-246. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.

This chapter is a lightly edited version of 'The Management of Surplus Capacity: Or how does theory stand up to protectionism 1970s style?' (1979).

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Nake M. Kamrany and Editor: Richard H. Day
Keywords: Production, Structural Power, Power, Theory, Trade, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1979

Interdependence in the International Monetary System

Strange, Susan. In The Euro-American System: Economic and Political Relations Between North America and Western Europe, edited by Ernst-Otto Czempiel and Dankwar A. Rustow, 31-49. Frankfurt: Westview Press, 1976.

Strange briefly outlines the character of the international monetary system, noting that while it has become at least partially transnational, posited solutions are still conceived at a national level. This leads her to argue that there needs to be a better attempt made to fit the response to crisis to the level at which it is manifest. Having suggested that the central country in the monetary system (the U.S.) could either try to co-ordinate activities, or by its very dominance alleviate the crisis by putting its own house in order, she suggests the best (though least likely) solution would be some form of global central bank. This leads her to conclude by stressing the political issues at the centre of the international financial system and the need to included justice as well as order or security in the academic assessment of the crisis.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Ernst-Otto Czempiel and Editor: Dankwart A. Rustow
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1976

International Monetary Relations

Strange, Susan. In International Economic Relations in the Western World 1959-71, edited by Andrew Shonfield, 18-25. London: Oxford University Press, 1976.

While much more than an expanded and internationalised version of Sterling and British Policy (1971), this work covers much of the same period and material. Strange spends little time here developing further her theories and refers the reader to 'International Economic Relations I: The Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach' (1972) for her thoughts regarding the discipline of international studies. After an extended narrative of international monetary relations for the period, she concludes that the increasing politicisation of the international monetary system, indicates that there is an emerging international political economy, interdependent though dominated by the United States, where bargains between actors are struck through the operation of both political and economic power. However what later would be ‘structural power’ is not theorised at this stage, although the central role of ‘bargains’ emerges as a subject of concern.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance; Interdependence

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Andrew Shonfield
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1976

International Shipping and the Developing Countries

Strange, Susan, Richard Holland. World Development 4, no. 3 (1976): 241-251.

Focusing on the importance of sea transport for developing countries that need to gain access to other markets (both for imports and their own exports) Strange and Holland examine the political economy of liner conferences by which international shipping capacity is managed. This private management system does not serve the developing states well leading UNCTAD to press for fairer international rules of conduct for international shipping. On one side the authors suggest that developing countries, where possible may need to develop national carriers to allow them to influence the management of shipping as well offering an secure avenue for their own trade. However, the authors also stress that a political response to the problems is required from the developed states before the problem leads to major disruption in international trade. The authors conclude that a form of international shipping authority needs to be set up to replace the market driven liner conferences.

Keywords: International Institutions; Trade; Transportation; International Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Richard Holland
Keywords: International Institutions, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1976

Review of Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye (1977) Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition and Edward L. Morse (1976) Modernization and Transformation of International Relations

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 53, no. 2 (1977): 270-273.

In this short review of two important books in the development of International Political Economy, Strange briefly suggests the position which she would adopt more forthrightly later in her career: that IPE was not a sub-discipline of International Relations, but rather sought to completely redefine what it is to study the global system.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1977

The Study of Transnational Relations

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 52, no. 3 (1976): 333-345.

Published alongside 'Who Runs World Shipping?' (1976). In this article Strange sets out an outline method for sectoral analysis in the international economy. This is prefaced by a critical engagement with the Nye and Keohane 'transnational politics' approach. After stressing the inseparability of politics and economics, and the crucial authority/market trade-off, she suggests three analytical questions that must be asked in any sectoral analysis; questions about the loci and distribution of power over economic processes, the who, why, and how of economic intervention, and the question of the consequences, and benefits. Only by building up from systematic sectoral analyses can the asymmetrical bargaining processes, the impact of technology, the influence of markets and the politicisation of the international political economy be understood.

Keywords: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1976

Who Runs World Shipping?

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 52, no. 3 (1976): 346-367.

Published alongside 'The Study of Transnational Relations?' (1976). Based on the theory developed in that article, Strange's sectoral analysis (of world shipping), which carries some material forward from 'International shipping and the developing countries' (with Richard Holland, 1976).

Keywords: Theory; Trade; International Institutions; Transportation; International Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Theory, Trade, International Institutions, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1976

The Financial Factor and the Balance of Power

Strange, Susan. In Foreign Policy: Policy Making and Implementation, edited by James Barber, Josephine Negro, Micheal Smith, 35-46. Milton Keynes: Open University, 1975.

Strange presents the Soviet-American balance of power alongside the balance of power in the international monetary system to make links between supposedly different sectors of the international system. While these balances function in different ways, Strange prefaces her remarks with a short argument for an International Political Economy approach to problems rather than a predominantly political or predominantly economic account. This short piece illustrates her argument about the applicability of her IPE approach, but does not include her more usual extended criticism of previous analyses from International Relations or International Economics.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Political Economy; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: James Barber, Editor: Josephine Negro and Editor: Michael Smith
Keywords: Money and Finance, Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, 1970's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1975

What is Economic Power, and Who Has it?

Strange, Susan. International Journal 30, no. 2 (1975): 207-224.

Here Strange commits to print an early version of the structure of power theory which she would develop over the next thirteen years. In this manifestation, there are three dimensions of power in the international political economy - security, 'ideology' and economic. There is more concern, though, with a location of four level or stages at which economic power is apparent - the world market structure; international co-operative relations; national/governmental control of markets; and the operational level of the economic transactions themselves. The importance of the history of bargains for the international structure is identified, but not developed fully. This is based on a paper given to the ISA Conference in March 1973 entitled 'The Market as an International Actor - The Case of the Eurocurrency Markets.' 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: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1975

Arab Oil and International Finance

Strange, Susan. The Ditchley Journal 1 (1974): 10-23.

Essentially a conference report, Strange discusses the meeting held at Ditchley in December 1973 to discuss the financial prospects and problems for industry and government in the world economy, and the inescapable problem of the oil crisis. Discussing the various aspects of monetary order, from balance of payments problems and trade barriers, to financial flows, she argues that at this point too little work had been done to understand the effects and causes of shifts in monetary flows. In a repeated theme of much of Strange’s work on finance she argues strongly for a move away from an exclusively economic/financial analysis of the problem, and a (re)introduction of political analysis. Again Strange, although less explicitly than elsewhere, argues for a ‘new’ International Political Economy.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, International Institutions, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, 1970's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1974

IMF: Monetary Managers

Strange, Susan. In The Anatomy of Influence: Decision Making in International Organisation, edited by Robert W. Cox and Harold K. Jacobson, 263-297. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.

This is a detailed case study of the IMF, which Strange uses to back up her warning that there can be no justification for an analytical division between the economic and the political. She argues that the IMF can only be understood within its international political context, and suggests that any institutional changes will reflect the continuing development of the international economy. It is important to recognise that the US is its chief initiator of policy and influence, both directly through its constitutionally predominant position in the organisation and through its wider impact on the international environment in which the IMF operates. Although not a full argument for structural power, this article recognises that relational power is insufficient to fully explain power relations within the IMF.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Political Economy

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Robert W. Cox and Editor: Harold K. Jacobson
Keywords: Money and Finance, Political Economy, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1974

International Business and the EEC

Strange, Susan. In The Eruopean Economic Community, edited by James Barber, 82-95. Milton Keynes: Open University, 1974.

Strange discusses the relationship between international business and the EEC by briefly examining three partly overlapping assertions: that the main achievements of the EEC have resulted not from the community’s own work but from the impact of international business; that international business is a ‘Trojan horse’ for American influence and interest in Europe; and that the EEC is a necessary response to the problems brought by international business. She then concludes it is impossible to separate politics and economics, and that the indicators used to measure the level of European integration are unable to capture what is actually happening. Furthermore, the impact of international business is becoming a transnational process across states rather than an international process between them. Thus she advocates further moves to political unity in Europe to counter-balance the power of international business.

Keywords: Corporations; Europe; Transnational Corporations; European Integration

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: James Barber
Keywords: Corporations, Europe, 1970's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1974

International Economic Relations I: The Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach

Strange, Susan. In The Study of International Affairs: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Younger, edited by Roger Morgan, 63-84. London: RIIA/Oxford University Press, 1972.

Strange’s second major attack on the discipline of international economics as it then stood, see also 'International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect' (1970). She derides the academic ‘apartheid’ that separates off political considerations from the economic and argues that what is required is a single international studies discipline that encompasses both the politics and economics of international relations (what would eventually become International Political Economy). The only part of international studies that has moved in this direction is ‘development economics’. Their openness to the insights of other approaches needs to be adopted by other sectors of study. She argues that this should start in the universities with more emphasis on multi-disciplinary training.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Economics; International Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Roger Morgan
Keywords: Politcal Economy, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1972

Review of: R.J Barber The American Corporation: Its Power, Its Money, Its Politics

Strange, Susan. International Journal 27, no. 2 (1972): 308-309.

Strange feels that the author overstates the political power and influence of multinational in themselves. She identifies a close connection between the US government and larger corporations. Interestingly this is a position that she gradually moves away from in subsequent work, identifying transnational firms as actors in their own right by 67), arguing for their major importance as actors in the international political economy.

Keywords: Corporations; Hegemony; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Corporations, Hegemony, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1972

The Dollar Crisis 1971

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 48, no. 2 (1972): 191-216.

Using the 'Dollar Crisis' as a way of examining the problems which beset academic approaches to international relations Strange suggests that: foreign policy analysis seems unable to recognise the centrality of economic problems for states; (Neo)functionalism is far too optimistic concerning the possibility of international integration; much 'abstract theorising', such as game theory, seems to have no connection with what is happening in the international system; and international economics has diverted attention away from international political problems. Strange forcefully argues that: political economy is crucial to understanding international relations; the US is dominant due to its financial power, not its military or economic might; internationalisation (or now 'globalisation') diminishes the prospective advantages of regional economic solutions; the 'market' must be understood as an actor! Bearing these ideas in mind she then examines the 'Dollar Crisis' concluding that international institutions were revealed as powerless when the US wished to follow a specific policy (revealing its power). Strange would continue to refine this position during the next two decades.

Keywords: Hegemony; International institutions; Markets; Money and Finance; Political Economy

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, International Institutions, Markets, Money and Finance, Political Economy, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1972

The Multinational Corporation and the National Interest

Strange, Susan. In Decision Making in Britain, edited by James Barber, 165-178. Milton Keynes: Open University, 1972.

In one of her earliest pieces to deal directly with multinational companies or corporations Strange argues that an analysis of the companies not only leads to both domestic and foreign policy making but also into the realm of international (regulatory) policy making. Much of the text is taken up with a discussion of the likely conflicts in interest between governments and corporations with multinational operations (as she prefers to term them). In the main she is concerned to note the national interest in control and the difficulty of trying to control non-national companies, but she notes the already troublesome problems of taxation and regulation. She concludes that rather than threats by other states, the main problems that states need to deal with are linked with the operations of international business in one way or another.

Keywords: Corporations; Political Economy; Transnational Corporations; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: James Barber
Keywords: Corportations, Political Economy, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1972