The 2010's

Works from the years 2010 to 2019

The Curious Case of Monopoly Rights as Free Trade: The TPP and Intellectual Property and Why It Still Matters

Halbert, Debora J. Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 204-227.

Using the framework of a knowledge structure as conceptualized by Susan Strange, this article addresses the loss of flexibilities in international intellectual property (IP) regimes and the corresponding global criminalization of IP as serious topics of concern. The knowledge structure of IP frames a very specific type of global political economy. First, Strange's approach to international political economy as it relates to IP is developed. Second, a brief history of global IP as a trade-related issue is discussed, including the current status of the Transpacific Partnership. Finally, some future trends that may suggest global shifts in the knowledge structure worth watching are investigated.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Knowledge

Contributor(s): Debora J. Halbert
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2017

The Geopolitical Economy of the Global Internet Infrastructure

Winseck, Dwayne. Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 228-267.

According to many observers, economic globalization and the liberalization of telecoms/internet policy have remade the world in the image of the United States. The dominant roles of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have also led to charges of US internet imperialism. This article, however, argues that while these internet giants dominate some of the most popular internet services, the ownership and control of core elements of the internet infrastructure—submarine cables, internet exchange points, autonomous system numbers, datacenters, and so on—are tilting increasingly toward the EU and BRICS (i.e., Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries and the rest of the world, complicating views of hegemonic US control of the internet and what Susan Strange calls the knowledge structure.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Knowledge

Contributor(s): Dwayne Winseck
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2017

The Political Economy of Currency Internationalisation: The Case of the RMB

Germain, Randall, Herman Mark Schwartz. Review of International Studies 43, no. 3 (2017): 765-787.

The rise of China has sparked a debate about the economic and political consequences for the global economy of the internationalisation of the renminbi. We argue that the dominant focus of this literature – primarily the external conditions and requirements for a national currency to become an international currency – misspecifies the connections between the international and domestic requirements for currency internationalisation, as well as the potential to become the dominant international reserve currency. We correct this oversight by developing an integrated theoretical framework that highlights the domestic adjustment costs which a state must accommodate before its currency can carry the weight of internationalisation. These costs constitute a critical element of an international currency’s ‘political economy’, and they force states to negotiate contentious social trade-offs among competing domestic claims on finite public resources in a sustainable manner. Our analysis suggests that the likelihood of China being able to successfully negotiate the social costs associated with running a fully internationalised currency is currently very low, precisely because this will place unacceptable pressure on groups benefiting from the economic and political status quo. This further suggests that the American dollar will remain unchallenged as the global economy’s pre-eminent international currency for the foreseeable future.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Economic Competition

Contributor(s): Randall Germain and Herman Mark Schwartz
Keywords: Money and Finance, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2017

Ahead of her Time? Susan Strange and Global Governance

Sell, Susan K. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 39-50. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that Strange's work is of enduring significance because it helps us forge a practical understanding of critical global problems. Global environmental problems, global financial crises, and global inequalities are three of the small set of global problems regularly pointed to by promoters of the new global public policy degree programs established over the last decade. In the contemporary world, the knowledge structure serves the production and financial structures, not the other way around. Strange's analysis contains an argument about the recent wave of economic globalization. She sees the globalization of private finance and the globalization of production as, in part, responses to changes in technology to things like containerized shipping and the Internet changes that came from that contemporary knowledge structure. The programs like the one that Mahbubani created at NUS with Kofi Annan reflect a global governance paradigm that emphasizes subsidiary as a way to enhance both accountability and legitimacy.

Keywords: Global Governance; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Susan K. Sell and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Global Governance, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Corporate Power in a Global Economy

Palan, Ronen. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 170-182. London: Routledge, 2016.

What is the nature of the powers of corporations in a globalized economy? Has there been a shift of power from states to corporations? From states to markets? And if yes, how and why? These are the sort of questions that were at heart of Susan Strange's work. Political science during the time of her writing, and even more so international relations, was occupied with forms of relational power (Tajfel and Turner 1979). These theories assumed that an existential condition of scarcity (of material or ideational goods) encourages the formation of collective action groups, each intent on advancing or protecting their vested interests. Political scientists would use key concepts such as actors, intentions, interests and power, which, in combination were supposed to provide the analyst with a good grasp over policy outcomes.

Keywords: Corporations; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Ronen Palan and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Corporations, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Diagnosing the Human Condition in a Dynamic Global System

Pauly, Louis W. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 183-192. London: Routledge, 2016.

Virgil's 'rerum cognoscere causas,' adorns the crest of the London School of Economics and Political Science. 'To know the cause of things' expressed an abiding aspiration for Susan Strange, even if she doubted all absolute truth-claims. In the mid-1970s, after she had rejoined her alma mater as a lecturer in the International Relations Department, I attended her course on 'The Politics of International Business.' As we know now, she was then helping to lay the foundations for a field that would soon be called 'international political economy.' In other places during the same period of time, Professors Kindleberger, Cox, Gilpin, Keohane, Krasner, Katzenstein, and Cohen were also working to carve out the intellectual space where history, economics, international relations, political science, and management studies would fruitfully intersect during the next four decades (Cohen 2008a).

Keywords: Theory

Contributor(s): Louis W. Pauly and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Theory, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Money, Power, Authority

Cohen, Benjamin J. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 129-143. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter discusses the political economy of the global transformation. The share of American gross domestic product (GDP) in relation to global GDP had declined; the control of American corporations over key international markets remained high and was even growing. Strange argued that the global articulation of power was constituted by a complicated amalgam of public and the private authority. The superior innovative capacities of the firms, bolstered by government-sponsored military research, bestowed onto certain segments of the Americas economy, an unalloyed competitive advantage. The financial crisis began in the US financial system, even if it was aided and abetted by global forces and dynamics. The Carr suggests through his analysis of the foundations of mass society in the middle years of the twentieth century, when society exerts pressure on the operation of government, government in turn becomes much more involved in society, including the economy and its financial system.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Authority; Markets; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Benjamin J. Cohen and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Authority, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Shaping the World Beyond the 'Core': States and Markets in Brazil's Global Assent

Tussie, Diana. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 73-86. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that the global financial crisis of 2008 presented a unique opportunity to re-visit them and to re-evaluate Strange's core argument about the enduring structural power of the US in global finance. It explains how this power was particularly apparent in two international developments that took place at the height of the crisis: the US international lender-of-last-resort role and the absence of a dollar crisis. The chapter argues that an analysis of these two developments not only demonstrates the validity of Strange's argument about the US position in global finance but also provides a chance to clarify some analytical aspects of Strange's concept of structural power. The experience of the 2008 crisis demonstrates how structural power in global finance provides a number of benefits to the US, ranging from the unique influence it had in politics of crisis resolution to the unusual macroeconomic flexibility that stemmed from foreign support of the dollar.

Keywords: States; Markets; Structural Power, Power; Authority

Contributor(s): Diana Tussie and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: States, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Still an Extraordinary Power After All These Years: The US and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008

Helleiner, Eric. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 111-126. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explores Strange's analysis of the centrality of dominant knowledge and financial structures in the constitution of the contours of the global political economy and of financial capitalism. It draws upon critical political economy, focusing on the how of power and its mobilization through dominant knowledge and financial structures to establish central bank independence and financial liberalization as grundnorms of the global financial system. In seeking to develop a sociological understanding of the construction of dominant power structures, the chapter draws upon critical political economy traditions inspired by the works of Michel Foucault and Antonio Gramsci. Strange identified the central problematique as a problem of governance and the absence of the leadership required to address the economic malaise of the 1980s. This chapter examines Strange's analysis of problems in global financial leadership and it reveals her significant contribution to the understanding of the material dimensions of financial governance.

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

Contributor(s): Eric Helleiner and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Strange Bedfellows? Bankers, Business(men) and Bureaucrats in Global Financial Governance

Cutler, A. Claire. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 144-169. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explains how to diagnose the human condition in a dynamic global system. Strange was the one who insisted that the things to be explained were not always what they seemed, and that theory, especially the grand theory, could obscure the fundamental realities. Discerning the causes and the larger meanings behind the social and political arrangements through which these values are distributed in the particular global policy arenas framed Strange's IPE. Murphy focused on the capital markets that are not reliably backstopped by the emergency fiscal capabilities, and therefore not reliably regulated; expansive systems for producing goods and the services that depend on degrading the life-sustaining bio-sphere; and the absence of redistributive instruments adequate enough to stabilize an emerging global society. Helleiner used the conceptual and the empirical grounding to show us precisely how the global financial system worked during the crisis of 2008.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Authority; Westfailure System

Contributor(s): A. Claire Cutler and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Strange Power Over Credit; or the Enduring Strength of US Structural-Power

Schwartz, Herman Mark. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 87-110. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter provides some retrospective comments on what Strange says on the nexus of money and power; and second, in the light of what she had to say, to assess her vision of where the monetary system is heading. Strange was certainly right that the dynamics of power and governance in global finance today are changing. A leaderless diffusion of power is generating greater uncertainty about the underlying rules of the game. The linkage between money and power was one of the most enduring themes in Strange's work. The US political scientists, Peter Bachrach and Morton Baratz, had pointed out that the direct action represented just one face of power, and perhaps not even the most important. The causal mechanism works along the lines of the sequential Stackelberg leadership model of game theory. The United States acts unilaterally, as it typically does, exploiting what is often described as its exorbitant privilege.

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

Contributor(s): Herman Mark Schwartz and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation

Germain, Randall, editor. London: Routledge, 2016.

This edited volume addresses the 2007/2009 financial crisis as the occasion to engage critically with the corpus of Susan Strange's work, in order to consider what changes (if any) this crisis portends for the structural organization of the global political economy. The contributors use Strange's rich conceptual framework to explore the financial crisis and its aftermath, and reflect critically on the broader contributions which her work has made to the discipline of IPE. The volume makes three valuable contributions for scholars and students. First, it raises the profile of Susan Strange, a unique and powerful contributor to the field of IPE whose ideas matter to our current circumstance and can provide deep and enduring insights into important questions and issues. Secondly, each contributor to this volume combines her work and ideas with that of other traditions or individual theorists in ways that extend and/or deepen Strange's own efforts. Finally, this volume leaves us with a judicious optimism about the future of both IPE and the world as it actually is, on the ground.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power; Authority; Markets

Contributor(s): Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, Authority, Markets, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Edited Volume

Year of Publication: 2016

Susan Strange and the Future of IPE

Germain, Randall. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 19-36. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter explains how contributors use Susan Strange's rich conceptual framework to explore the financial crisis and its aftermath, and reflect critically on broader contributions which her work has made to the discipline of international political economy (IPE). Susan Strange's life and times spanned the most tumultuous decades of the twentieth century. Susan Strange spent much of her academic career lamenting and cataloguing the serial failure of scholarship in political science, international relations and international economics to understand how the world and its political economy had changed or was in the process of changing. The global demand for American credit during the financial crisis both fed off and reinforced the pre-existing American capacity to generate and deploy the financial resources. The Strange was an inveterate optimist that things on the ground could be improved upon, if only analysis was sound and the determination to act was both robustly held and appropriately grounded in sustainable values that were widely shared.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; Structural Power, Power; General Framework

Contributor(s): Randall Germain and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

The Closing of the Net

Horten, Monica. Cambridge: Routledge, 2016.

Deploying Susan Strange's concept of structural power, this book provides the backstory to current attempts by states and corporations to control the Internet. It explains key issues such as privacy, net neutrality and copyright in a way that is accessible to non-experts, as well as providing a clear, authoritative context for academic study.

Keywords: Knowledge

Contributor(s): Monica Horten
Keywords: Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book

Year of Publication: 2016

The Political Economy of Global Transformation: Susan Strange, E.H. Carr and the Dynamics of Structural Change

Germain, Randall. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 183-200. London: Routledge 2016.

Do international relations precede or follow (logically) fundamental social relations? There can be no doubt that they follow. Any organic innovation in the social structure, through its technical–military expressions, modifies organically absolute and relative relations in the international field too.

Keywords: Hegemony; Authority; Markets; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Randall Germain and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Hegemony, Authority, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

The Westfailure System' Fifteen Years on: Global Problems, What Makes Them Difficult to Solve and the Role of IPE

Murphy, Craig N. In Susan Strange and the Future of Global Political Economy: Power, Control and Transformation, edited by Randall Germain, 51-70. London: Routledge, 2016.

This chapter argues that some of Susan Strange's insights hold heuristic value that remains underused in the literature that is emerging from the regions, on the regions, and in the wider international political economy (IPE) field itself. In a nutshell, a closer examination of the regions out there can reveal important scope conditions for understanding the structural re-organization of the global political economy which may otherwise be missed. Susan Strange's analysis of business and power opens up the possibility of looking at developing countries as makers and not just takers of international policy. It reinforces the call today for IPE to move on and speak to a new global landscape. This narrative is certainly consistent with the institutional turn in development theory. Internationalization beyond the core also marks a new stage in development. Fiscal solvency has changed the character of the state, enabling it to provide centrally mandated subsidized credit.

Keywords: Authority; Structural Power, Power; Westfailure System; General Framework

Contributor(s): Craig N. Murphy and Editor: Randall Germain
Keywords: Authority, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2016

Transnational Corporations and the Proliferation of Bilateral Investment Treaties: More Than a Bit Influential

Jacobs, Michael. Transnational Corporations Review 8, no. 2 (2016): 93-111.

To date, over 2500 bilateral investment treaties (BITs) have been signed. The popularity of these treaties raises the question, what has driven the proliferation of BITs? Previous research argues that the proliferation of BITs is the product of competition for capital among developing states. This study hypothesises that the developed state transnational corporations (TNCs) are driving the spread of BITs. The results from a time series logistic regression support the TNC hypothesis, adding support to the argument that transnationals should be recognised as major actors in the international political economy.

Keywords: Corporations; Money and Finance; Structural Power, Power; Authority; Markets

Contributor(s): Michael Jacobs
Keywords: Corporations, Money and Finance, Structural Power, Power, Authority, Markets, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2016

Dollar Hegemony: A Power Analysis

Norrlof, Carla. Review of International Political Economy 21, no. 5 (2014): 1042-1070.

The dollar has been the world's first currency since the end of World War II, possibly since the inter-war period, and is the leading currency today. A growing chorus of observers believes this dollar-centered order is coming to an end. While much commentary revolves around changes in the distribution of power, measures are only loosely related to the material basis for currency dominance. A proper understanding of the dollar's global role requires a quantitative assessment of the United States' monetary capabilities and currency influence relative to potential rivals. Moreover, while there is general recognition that a shift in power capabilities away from the United States to another actor in the international system is an insufficient, although necessary, condition for the prevailing currency hierarchy to reverse, there exists no systematic exploration of how power is exercised when converting monetary capabilities into currency influence. This paper offers a systematic assessment of the monetary capabilities and currency influence of all countries in the world as well as an analysis of how the three faces of power sustain dollar hegemony.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Money and Finance

Contributor(s): Carla Norrof
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Money and Finance, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2014

Reconsidering the Ontological Foundations of International Energy Affairs: Realist Geopolitics, Market Liberalism and a Politico-Economic Alternative

Stoddard, Edward. European Security 22, no. 4 (2013): 437-463.

Accounts of international energy affairs often present a divergence between geopolitical/realist and liberal market-based approaches. This article suggests that this state of affairs reflects the (often implicit) legacies of realist and rationalist international thought in the study of energy affairs and the corresponding political and economic ontological hierarchies of analytical frameworks employed in different accounts of energy politics. Consequently, this article recommends a greater explicit attention to scientific ontological foundations in studies of energy relations and, in line with the calls of Keating et al. and Strange, suggests an approach based in the literature on I/GPE, which merges political and economic ontological axioms, as most apposite for the study of energy affairs. Building on this framework, and giving particular examples from the context of Eurasian energy politics, this article then outlines a number of politico-economic heuristic models (structural diversity, territorial non-coincidence, milieu-shaping and market-authority bargains) that are particularly useful concepts in helping to explain the intricate interactions of international energy relations.

Keywords: Authority ; Markets; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Realism; Liberalism; Energy

Contributor(s): Edward Stoddard
Keywords: Authority , Markets, Structural Power, Power, Theory, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2013

Return of the State? The G20, the Financial Crisis and Power in the World Economy

Nordberg, Donald. Review of Political Economy 24, no. 2 (2012): 289-302.

The Group of Twenty and the new world order it is meant to signify have prompted a wave of triumphalism around the world from those who, like French President Nicolas Sarkozy, bemoan the influences of ‘Anglo-Saxon capitalism’ and from neo-Marxists, who view the economic crisis as a harbinger of the resurgence of states over markets. A little over a decade ago, however, the late doyenne of international political economists, Susan Strange, wrote eloquently about the reasons why the state was in retreat, its structural power draining away in favour of markets. Have the intervening dozen years, with their recurrent crises in markets and corporate governance, demonstrated the need for a return of the state? This analysis of the G20 London communiqué, using criteria that Strange advanced, suggests that far from asserting a return of the state, the G20 signifies its persistent weakness and concludes that the G20 leaders, at least, sense a more complex network of power relationships, and that structural power rests in the network.

Keywords: Authority; Markets; Money and Finance; Global governance

Contributor(s): Donald Nordberg
Keywords: Authority, Markets, Money and Finance, Global governance, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2012

The Changing Position of the State and State Power in Global Affairs - Views from Two Scholars in International Political Economy

Du Plessis, Marthinus J. South African Journal of Military Studies 28, no. 1 (2012): 146-167.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; General Framework; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Marthinus J. Du Plessis
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, General Framework, Authority vs Markets, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2012

Towards a New Understanding of Structural-Power: 'Structure is What States Make of It.'

Pustovitovskij, Andrej, Jan-Frederik Kremer. In Power in the 21st Century. Edited by Enrico Fels, Jan-Frederik Kremer, Katharina Kronenberg, 59-78. Berlin: Polity Press, 2012.

The study of power in International Relations (IR) can be seen as the search for the cornerstone of our discipline. Hardly any theory or approach of IR can claim evidence and explanatory power without at least implicitly addressing the question of the ontology of power. In this article we will, by introducing our concept of structural power, offer a new path towards understanding a concept famously introduced in the 1980s by Susan Strange (1987, 1988a, b), but still lacking clarity in operationalization and application. By addressing the questions: “How does structural power work?/How does structural power change the rules of the game?/How is structural power constituted?/Through which kind of transmission channels does structural power affect the power position of states?/What are the underlying power resources of structural power? What is the relationship between structural power and other forms of power?”, our approach to structural power will, by responding this questions offer a new approach towards the study of power in IR and will foster the understanding of a concept which can help to understand international relations in an interdependent age. By doing so, we will present a concept of structural power which differs from the concept of Susan Strange, but which is also able to enclose her ideas about power structures in world politics, by examining the importance of states’ needs and goods for their structural power position in international relations. The aim of this article is to foster a new understanding of structural power, by introducing a concept of structural power independent from the assumed, but empirically not proofed existence of a specific number of dominant power (sub-)structures and certain resources, but based on a model of structure able to enclose changes in power structures in international affairs.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Theory; General Framework

Contributor(s): Andrej Pustovitovskij, Jan-Frederik Kremer, Editor: Enrico Fels, Editor: Jan-Frederik Kremer and Editor: Katharina Kronenberg
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Theory, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2012