Authority

Structural-Power and International Regimes.

Gwynn, Maria A. Journal of Political Power 12, no. 2 (2019): 200-223.

This paper revisits the international relations approach to structural power. In particular, it stresses the influence of international regimes, institutions and international law, on current understandings of structural power. The new approach broadens conceptions that see structural power solely as constraints; structures not only reflect the capabilities of actors that created them, but also generate new capabilities. The institutional context and viewing the 'structure' through the prism of international regime theory enables us to resolve conceptual issues that eluded classic scholars such as Waltz and Strange; and allows a more pluralistic view of actors' interactions in the international system.

Keywords: Authority; Authority vs Markets; Markets; Regimes; Structural Power, Power

Contributor(s): Maria A. Gwynn
Keywords: Authority, Markets, Structural Power, Power, Strange-Influenced Works, 2010's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 2019

Incorporating the Study of Knowledge into the IPE Mainstream, or, When Does a Trade Agreement Stop Being a Trade Agreement?

Haggart, Blayne. Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 176-203.

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: Structural Power, Power; Authority; Markets; Knowledge; Theory; General Framework

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

Year of Publication: 2017

Introduction to the Special Issue: Rise of the 'Knowledge Structure': Implications for the Exercise of Power in the Global Political Economy

Haggart, Blayne. Journal of Information Policy 7 (2017): 164-175.

Somewhat paradoxically, the implications of knowledge governance's changing role for the exercise of power in the Information Age remains underappreciated outside those scholars and policymakers directly engaged with these specific areas. This special issue brings together political scientists and communication scholars to consider the issue of knowledge governance through the theoretical framework of Susan Strange. This introduction examines the treatment of knowledge-governance issues within the mainstream of International Political Economy scholarship and briefly contextualizes the contribution of each article in this special issue.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Authority; Markets; Knowledge; Theory; General Framework

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

Year of Publication: 2017

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Ford and the Global Strategies of Multinationals: The North American Auto Industry

Studer-Noguez, Maria Isabel. London: Taylor & Francis, 2002.

Keywords: Corporations; States; Globalization; Authority; Markets

Contributor(s): Isabel Studer-Noguez
Keywords: Corporations, States, Globalization, Authority, Markets, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book

Year of Publication: 2002

European Competitiveness and Enlargement: Is There Anyone in Charge?

Pellegrin, Julie. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 297-316. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Economics; Europe; Authority; Markets; Political Economy; International Relations; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Julie Pellegrin, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Economics, Authority, Markets, Political Economy, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Global Money and the Decline of State Power

Underhill, Geoffrey R.D. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 115-135. London: Routledge, 2000.

Abstract Content

Keywords: Global governance; Globalization; Money and finance; Authority; Markets; States

Contributor(s): Geoffrey R.D. Underhill, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Global governance, Globalization, Money and finance, Authority, Markets, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Going Beyond States and Markets to Civil Societies?

Shaw, Timothy M., Sandra J. MacLean. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 391-406. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Theory; Authority; Markets; States; Civil Society

Contributor(s): Timothy M. Shaw, Sandra J. MacLean, Maria Nzomo, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Theory, Authority, Markets, States, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy

Lawton, Thomas, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, editors. London: Routledge, 2000.

Focusing on the contribution of Susan Strange to the study of international political economy, this collection forms a unique perspective on the global economy whilst providing tools for the reader to better understand that economic system. The book examines Susan Strange's structural power theories, whilst adding the perspective of the contributor. The combination of approaches and experience provides a multifaceted analysis of international relations and international political economy.

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

Contributor(s): Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Money and Finance, Production, Knowledge, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Edited Volume

Year of Publication: 2000

The Retreat of the State?

Gilpin, Robert. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 197-214. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Theory; State; Markets; Authority

Contributor(s): Robert Gilpin, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Theory, State, Markets, Authority, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

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

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

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

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

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

Year of Publication: 1998

Territory, State, Authority and Economy: A New Realist Ontology of Global Political Economy

Strange, Susan. In The New Realism: Perspectives on Multilateralism and World Order, edited by Robert W. Cox, 3-19. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press/United Nations University Press, 1997.

Strange argues that the global economy is in the midst of a transition; the close incidence of political authority, economic activity and geographical territory no longer holds. This has been caused by two main groups of factors: firstly changes derived from science and technology; and secondly structural changes within the global finance structure. Authority has shifted, or is shifting, from states to other actors in the international political economy. She disputes Rosenau's hypothesis of the emergence of a second world of turbulent complexity, disturbing the old world of international relations, instead arguing that it is all the same world, just more complex! Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy. Roger Tooze and Christopher May, editors. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Robert W. Cox
Keywords: Authority, Knowledge, Markets, Money and Finance, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

The Erosion of the State

Strange, Susan. Current History 96, no. 613 (1997): 365-369.

Strange briefly revisits the globalisation debate and suggests those who argue that as the state still exists, globalisation can be ignored are very mistaken. She then goes on to outline three dilemmas of globalisation: the economic, in that increasingly there is no political authority able to govern and control market relations; the environmental, while on one hand market actors are driven by the profit motive to use up environmental resources, countervailing power is largely absent; the political, there is a major democratic deficit in the governance structure of the global system. Strange then links these aspects of globalisation to technical change and increased mobility of capital. However, a concentration on the state misses the 'new diplomacy' between firms and other non-state actors as well as states themselves as outline in Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991) . She then restates briefly her argument from The Retreat of the State (1996). The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (1996), the state is losing its authority due to: the decline in importance of war-making and security; its inability to control the value of the currency; and its increasingly lack of credibility as a provider of welfare. Thus, to deny the decline of the state is to deny that something needs to be done about it unless big business is to come to rule the international system.

Keywords: Authority; Globalization; Markets; States; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Authority, Globalization, Markets, States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1997

The Limits of Politics

Strange, Susan. Government and Opposition 30, no. 3 (1995): 291-311.

Originally delivered as a lecture at the LSE this article finds Strange explicitly engaging with the notion of globalisation. For Strange globalisation is: the development of products for explicitly global and transnational markets; the decline of barriers and distinctions between national economies; the emergence of at least partial labour mobility in addition to the more recognised capital mobility; and the speeding up of transport and communications. While these trends have changed the balance between authority and markets over outcomes in the international political economy, they have also led to an increasingly globalised but asymmetrical array of structural power.

Keywords: Authority; Globalization; Markets; Theory; Structural Power, Power; Authority vs Markets

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

Year of Publication: 1995

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

Comment on David T. Llewellyn 'International Monetary System Since 1972: Structural Change and Financial Innovation': pp. 14-47

Strange, Susan. In Problems of International Money, 1972-85, edited by Michael Posner, 44-45. Washington D.C.: IMF/London: ODI, 1986.

Identifying herself as a 'political realist', Strange stresses the need to accord sufficient weight to the 'realities' of power and the profit motive when examining the interaction of authority and markets in the international financial system. Thus while Llewellyn's paper is well received, he is too polite about the problems policy makers and economic 'experts' have been unable to solve.

Keywords: Authority; Markets; Money and Finance; Theory; Realism

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Michael Posner
Keywords: Authority, Markets, Money and Finance, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1986

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