The 1980's

Works from the years 1980 to 1989

The Global Political Economy, 1959-1984

International Journal 39, no. 2 (1984): 267-283.

After discussing some terms she would like to see the back of (‘actors’, ‘issue-areas’), reviewing years of the Global Political Economy, Strange proposes four structures that condition change. These are Security, Production, Knowledge and Finance, and though at this point this is only used as a taxonomy for looking at changes in the GPE, it represents the first time the structures of her theory appear in their final configuration. Strange also stresses that while the four structures are not hierarchical, she believes it is disruptions in the financial structure that has caused most upheavals over the period examined.

Keywords: Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power

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

Year of Publication: 1984

The Global Political Economy, 1959-1984

Strange, Susan. International Journal 39, no. 2 (1984): 267-283.

After discussing some terms she would like to see the back of ('actors', 'issue-areas'), reviewing years of the Global Political Economy, Strange proposes four structures that condition change. These are Security, Production, Knowledge and Finance, and though at this point this is only used as a taxonomy for looking at changes in the GPE, it represents the first time the structures of her theory appear in their final configuration. Strange also stresses that while the four structures are not hierarchical, she believes it is disruptions in the financial structure that has caused most upheavals over the period examined.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power

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

Year of Publication: 1984

Review of: C.F Bergsten The World Economic in the 1980s - Selected Papers (Toronto: D.C Heath, 1981)

Strange, Susan. International Journal 38, no. 2 (1983): 355-356.

Strange criticises Bergsten’s exaggeration of US decline in hegemonic power and absolution of the USA of bearing prime responsibility for the deteriorating economic situation. Indeed much of her work in the 1980s revolved round the dual need to recognise US responsibility for global economic crises, and the problem of such a responsibility being denied by the US (both policy makers and academics). Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy (edited by Roger Tooze & Christopher May) Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan 2002.

Key Terms: Hegemony

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

Year of Publication: 1983

Structures, Values and Risk in the Study of the International Political Economy

Strange, Susan. In Perspectives on Political Economy, edited by R.J. Barry Jones, 209-230. London: Francis Printer Journals, 1983.

In this article Strange argues for the centrality of questions surrounding the nature of risk and how it is mitigated, managed and transferred in the international economy. In addition she suggests five structures of power in IPE, noting that she is adding to the Marxist concept of a production structure. The others are the financial, security and knowledge structures she would continue to use as well as an element she termed the ‘welfare structure’. This fifth structure was to account for politically determined arrangements which allocate the risks to human life and contentment. The structural theory of States and Markets (1988) is emerging in this chapter, but is as yet not fully developed.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: R.J. Barry Jones
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1983

The Credit Crisis: A European View

Strange, Susan. SAIS Review 3, no. 2 (1983): 171-181.

Strange here uses the term crisis, but notes that the implication that some sort of solution is imminent is less than certain. She suggests that the world economic crisis has three interrelated aspects: unemployment, ‘flagging trade’, and unstable money. As in ‘The Management of Surplus Capacity: Or how does theory stand up to protectionism 1970s style?’ (1979) she shows some scepticism to the arguments that demonise protectionism, and suggests this is an essentially ideological position that would not repay global implementation. After briefly rehearsing the global financial history of the previous decade, Strange suggests that financial regulation which in the last analysis is dependent on certain sovereign states, can never be disinterested. As she would argue in more extended analyses later, she sees the role of the American financial system as destabilising because of the priority it gives to the interests of the domestic political system. Indeed until the United States is willing to ‘lead’ the global system, instead of working in its own interest, those interests will be compromised. Strange, as she would do often in future works, suggests a pragmatic acceptance of American reach over the global system, and suggests a sort of civilising mission to educate them into responsible leadership.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Europe, Hegemony, United Staes, Money and Finance, 1980's
Source and Medium: Jounral Article

Year of Publication: 1983

Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis

Strange, Susan. International Organisation 36, no. 2 (1982): 479-496.

Strange's classic critique of regime theory, often used as a touchstone for those regime-theorists wanting to make the point they recognise that there have been criticisms of their approach. As such it has at least a totemic importance. Strange argues for five shortcoming of regime theory: that it is a passing fad, is imprecise, has a value bias, is too static and is too state-centred. As in 'What is Economic Power, and Who has it?' (1975) the underlying history of bargains, which condition regimes are emphasised as being crucial to any understanding of the IPE. The rather brief structural power analysis conflates what Strange would come to term primary and secondary structures. 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: Foundational Work; Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Regime Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1982

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 International Politics of Surplus Capacity: Competition for Market Shares in the World

Strange, Susan, Roger Tooze, editors. London: Allen and Unwin, 1981.

This is a collection of 17 essays resulting from a conference held by the International Political Economy Group of the BISA, together with an editorial overview of theoretical approaches to IPE and a conclusion concerning the agreements and differences among the contributors. Writing with Tooze, Strange notes that it is not intended to dispense with the ‘insights’ of the realists, but it is necessary to widen their approach considerably. Any analysis should start by recognising the key historical bargains that were made within the economic structure. But the editors are not sure of the present possibility of an all embracing theory of international political economy. They conclude: there is a lessening possibility of dividing off the national from the international; any study of international relations (political or economic) must take account of values to avoid sterility in the analysis of outcomes; a structural analysis is not necessarily incompatible with realism; and IPE can only be meaningful where it builds on international economic history. Strange here identifies the following structures in international society: security, finance, distribution of knowledge, provision of welfare, transport services and communications; exchange and employment structures, without extensive analysis.

Keywords: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Realism

Contributor(s): Editor: Susan Strange and Editor: Roger Tooze
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Edited Volume

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