The 1990's

Works from the years 1990 to 1999

Finance and Capitalism: The City's Imperial Role Yesterday and Today

Strange, Susan. Review of International Studies 20, no. 4 (1994): 407-410.

In this short review of P.J. Cain and A.G. Hopkins British Imperialism (2 vols) (London: Longman 1993), Strange again emphasises the structural characteristics of US power in the global system and suggest that Britain's structural power was more long lasting than is sometimes presumed, with clear implications for the continuing power of the US in the global economy.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, United Kingdom, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1994

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

Wake Up, Krasner! The World has Changed

Strange, Susan. Review of International Political Economy 1, no. 2 (1994): 209-219.

Strange offers a criticism of Krasner's realist position, drawing on her recent work and an understanding of structural power. She also offers brief critiques of political and economic liberalism as being essentially internally inconsistent, before suggesting that it is they rather than the 'societal' approaches that are having theoretical problems with recent developments in the international political economy. Realism and liberalism lack the heuristic power of her own (and others) structuralist approach. She concludes by arguing that all the many different groups of actors/interests in the international system must be recognised and analysed not just states.

Keywords: Global Governance; Theory; Structural Power, Power; Realism; Global System

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Global Governance, Theory, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1994

Who Governs? Networks of Power in World Society

Strange, Susan. Hitotsubashi Journal of Law and Politics Special Issue (1994): 5-17.

Starting from Strange's response to Waltz's (in)famous London School of Economic lecture (see Millennium 22/2 - Summer 1993) in this article she first argues for a wider reading of politics – not just what states do. She then briefly summarises her arguments regarding structural power before discussing the roles states have historically played as producers of security, credit, market relations and environment. The power over finance and environment has moved to centre stage, but states have been losing relative power over these areas. But this is not to agree with the America-in-decline writers. Rather Strange argues that the US. retains structural power, which the non-US Group of Seven states, through joint action need to encourage Americans to recognise. This will enable the US. to once again act as hegemon for the general good. America's ability to supply market public goods needs to be matched by its will to do so, through diplomatic pressure. This is one of the few pieces where Strange makes her underlying prescriptive stance on the need for American leadership completely explicit. 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; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, United States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

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

States, Firms and Diplomacy

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 68, no. 1 (1992): 1-15.

This article in a brief summation of Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991) outlining the central argument of the book concerning the diplomacy between firms and states, and discusses some areas for further research. This represents a useful entry to the book picking out the salient points from the longer work, without the empirical elements. 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: Theory; Markets; States; Structural Power, Power; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Theory, Markets, States, Structural Power, Power, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1992

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

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

Big Business and the State

Strange, Susan. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 20, no. 2 (1991): 245-250.

Strange argues in this short piece that TNCs should be placed at the centre of IPE analysis along with the state and should not be left on the periphery. She also argues for an outside-in understanding of TNCs, putting them into the context in which they operate to understand them. This context is being transformed by changes in the production and financial structures, while she implicitly also argues for the centrality of changes in the 'knowledge' structure.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Corporations, Knowledge, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1991

Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for World Market Shares

Strange, Susan, John M. Stopford, John S. Henley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

A self-avowedly part international relations - part international business management work which in keeping with Strange's views discusses the interdependence between politics and economics without fore-grounding one at the expense of the other. The book builds on Strange's theory of power and links it through three national studies (Brazil, Malaysia, Kenya) to a consideration of the effect of structural change in the international political economy on the role of TNCs in international economic development. The authors suggest that diplomacy is now triangular; (traditional) state-state diplomacy has been joined by state-firm, and firm-firm diplomacy in the international political economy. In addition they note that the linking of TNCs with specific nations is increasingly difficult, not least due to the decreasing centrality of territorial considerations of power. The book concludes with policy advise for both states and multinationals and pointers for further research.

Keywords: Corporations; Foundational Work; Structural Power, Power; States; Transnational Corporations; Triangular Diplomacy

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, John M. Stopford and John S. Henley
Keywords: Corporations, Foundational Work, Structural Power, Power, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book

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

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

Finance, Information and Power

Strange, Susan. Review of International Studies 16, no. 3 (1990): 259-274.

Strange discusses the difference between American structural power and Japanese relational power in the financial structure. In addition she discusses the impact of communications technology changes on the operation of international financial markets, which represents an illuminating case study of how two structures interact with each other to bring about changes in the international political economy, in this case the financial and knowledge structures. In addition Strange notes that at least part of American structural power is derived from the privileged position of the 'American-English' language in the knowledge structure. 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: Knowledge; Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Knowledge Production

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Knowledge, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

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