Theory

The Evolving Global Production Structure: Implications for International Political Economy

Lawton, Thomas C., Kevin P. Michaels. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 79-96. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Political Economy; Production; Theory; International Relations; General Framework

Contributor(s): Book Chapter
Keywords: Political Economy, Production, Theory, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium:

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

Theorizing the 'No-Man's Land' Between Politics and Economics

Cutler, A. Claire. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 181-196. London: Routledge, 2000.

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

Contributor(s): A. Claire Cutler, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Theory, Production, Structural Power, Power, Knowledge, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

World Order, Non-State Actors, and the Global Casino: The Retreat of the State?

Strange, Susan. In Political Economy and the Changing Global Order, edited by Richard Stubbs, Geoffrey R.D. Underhill, 82-90. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

This is the an edited version of the text published as What Theory? The Theory in Mad Money (1998) with the addition of a new introduction which briefly lays out many of the arguments which Strange made her own over her long and distinguished career.

Keywords: Corporations; Knowledge; States; Theory; Authority vs Markets; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Richard Stubbs and Editor: Geoffrey R.D. Underhill
Keywords: Corporations, Knowledge, States, Theory, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Globaloney? (Review Essay)

Strange, Susan. Review of International Political Economy 5, no. 4 (1998): 704-711.

In this review of the influential Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson Globalisation in Question (Oxford: Polity Press, 1996) alongside two other books arguing a similar position, Strange makes a major intervention in the debate over the 'myth' of globalisation. Arguing that the authors (like others) miss the deterritorialisation of commercial power in the global system, Strange allows that there needs to be a corrective to the extreme globalisation thesis of complete transformation, but that a failure to examine what is really happening in the global political economy, while relying on aggregated and out-of-date statistics has led too many political economists to fail to recognise the very real changes in the balance of power between multinational corporations and states. For Strange it is this balance of power that is of major importance for understanding globalisation.

Keywords: Globalization; Theory; Corporations; States; Transnational Corporations; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Globalization, Theory, Corporations", States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1998

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

Why do International Organisations Never Die?

Strange, Susan. In Autonomous Policy Making by International Organisations, edited by Bob Reinalda, Bertjan Verbeek, 213-220. London: Routledge, 1998.

In this concluding chapter of a collection of articles drawn from a series of workshops organised under the auspices of the ECPR, Strange reflects on the legacy of The Anatomy of Influence see (1974b) and suggests that a focus on international organisation remains a largely European enterprise due to the continuing dominance of liberal institutionalism and (neo)Realism. After applauding the project in the first section, she then turns to some criticisms of the collection's contributors. She suggests that some of the authors have been unable to avoid capture by their subjects and are too kind to the self-perpetuating bureaucracies and secretariats of many international organisations. She argues that these bureaucracies have a symbiotic relationship with the members' governments and thus are able to ride out many local problems. Lastly she briefly alludes (again) to the failure to include the impact of changes in market conditions, changes in technology and the role of MNCs in the international political economic analysis of international organisations.

Keywords: Corporations; Europe; International Institutions; Theory; Transnational Corporations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Bob Reinalda and Editor: Bertjan Verbeek
Keywords: Corporations, Europe, International Institutions, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1998

An International Political Economy Perspective

Strange, Susan. In Governments, Globalization, and International Business, edited by John H. Dunning, 132-145. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

In this chapter Strange lays out her idea of what International Political Economy is, including a wide-ranging view of politics (not just the activities of politicians and governments) and a focus on structural power. This then leads her to discuss the problems that globalisation presents for governments, business and people. She concludes that these problems require a re-examination of authority and justice both by states and by international business and adopting an IPE perspective facilitates such analysis. By trying to make a bridge between business research and international relations Strange returns again to the theme of breaking down disciplinary boundaries, see for instance 'International Political Economy: Reuniting three fields of intellectual endeavour' (1989).

Keywords: Globalization; Political Economy; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: John H. Dunning
Keywords: Globalization, Political Economy, Theory, 1990's, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

Globalisation and Capitalist Diversity: Experiences on the Asian Mainland

Strange, Susan, editor. Florence: European University Institute/Robert Schulman Centre, 1997.

This volume collects together papers presented at a conference organised by Strange at the EUI on 2-4th May 1996. Strange herself only contributed an introduction outlining the papers in the volume and discussing the organisational background to the conference. Strange argues that comparative politics scholars and international business academics need to 'build bridges' between the two disciplines to better understand the interaction between states and firms. Additionally Strange wanted the conference to bring together European and Japanese academics to discuss the relationship between firms and states in Asia's economic development. Unsurprisingly, this relationship between states and firms, most specifically in the case of Japan and China was the central subject of discussion. However Strange concludes that while the papers collected in the volume broadly agreed on the importance of Asian development for the global economy, the participants were unable to agree on the interaction of states and firms. Finally Strange suggested that mainstream realist and neo-realist approaches to international relations were of little help and what was required was an interdisciplinary comparative international political economy, which she had been advocating for the previous twenty years.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; Realism

Contributor(s): Editor: Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Edited Volume

Year of Publication: 1997

The Future of Global Capitalism: or Will Divergence Persist Forever

Strange, Susan. In The Political Economy of Modern Capitalism: Mapping Convergence and Diversity, edited by Colin Crouch, Wolfgang Streeck, 182-191. London: Sage, 1997.

In this response to the contents of the volume in which it appears, Strange distances herself from comparative political economists studying different forms of national capitalism, and argues for a global perception of a more systemic view of capitalism. She notes that technological change and the mobility of capital and knowledge have produced a number of overlapping diversities in different sectors rather than a single state based set of diversities. The new institutional approach misses not only these changes but also the decline of governments ability to influence economic organisation, the growing disparity between the power of states and of multinationals, and the increase in bond financing (as a substitute for taxation) which is problematic for investment. Overall Strange is dismissive of a focus on diversity suggesting the more important problems will be the result of the increasing convergence of capitalism.

Keywords: Global Governance; Knowledge; Theory; Global System; Technology

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Colin Crouch and Editor: Wolfgang Streeck
Keywords: Global Governance, Knowledge, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1997

A Reply to Chris May

Strange, Susan. Global Society 10, no. 3 (1996): 303-305.

In Strange's reply to May's article (Strange Fruit: Susan Strange's theory of Structural-Power in the International Political Economy Global Society 10, 2 (May 1996): 167 -189), she engages with two criticisms made of her theory of structural power. Firstly she suggests that the knowledge structure itself is not necessarily prior as is suggested it might be considered to be if her process of agenda setting power is regarded as central. Furthermore my reworking of the knowledge structure while suggestive was overly dependent on a de-contextualised reading of Schumacher, whom she knew personally and whose views are misrepresented. Secondly, while agreeing with the criticism that she lacks a general theory of change she asserts that such a general theory is not possible, noting that she is however sensitive to particular forms of change. Finally, she concludes by agreeing that Paul Feyerabend's 'methodological anarchism' is helpful in giving epistemological grounds for her eclectic approach.

Keywords: Knowledge; Structural Power, Power; Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1996

The Retreat of the State: State Diffusion of Power in the World Economy

Strange, Susan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

In what might effectively be regarded as the third part of a trilogy, together with States and Markets (1988) and Rival States, Rival Firms: Competition for world market shares (with John M. Stopford and John S. Henley, 1991), Strange examines states' transition towards the sidelines of global political economic relations. Though in the past authority might have been state based, now she argues it is more often based on non-state abilities to bring about (or structure) outcomes. This has to some extent been obscured by the increasing intervention by states in the lives of their citizens, giving an impression of the retention of power. While some states have fared better than others, the US being the prime example of a state retaining significant power, in general Strange sees new sites of authority in the global system are rising to challenge even the strongest states. Relations between states and non-state authority are arrayed along a continuum from the Mafia, threatening and undermining remaining state authority, to the big-six accountancy firms and transnational legal partnerships which work with state based authority and by doing so support it. Lacking the means to autonomously change its interactions with the global political economy, the state has lost the most important and significant aspect of its potential.

Keywords: Foundational Work; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Authority vs Markets

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Foundational Work, States, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book

Year of Publication: 1996

1995 Presidential Address: ISA as a Microcosm

Strange, Susan. International Studies Quarterly 39, no. 3 (1995): 289-295.

After briefly discussing the history of the ISA, Strange points out that it is the International Studies Association, despite the current domination of International Relations. Once again Strange argues for the constructive engagement with other discipline interested in the international system, from political geographers to business economists. Strange points to the relative decline of state-state violence relative to civil and local violence, the increasing interest in the environment, and the dangers stemming from the financial markets, as reasons for widening the ISA's implicit agenda. Stressing that in the post-Cold War world there is only one superpower, Strange argues that for millions America is a common second-country. This is a very powerful position to be in, but it also requires the US. to remain part of the world system - not to flee into isolationism. The ISA as an embryonic epistemic community can do a lot to ensure this does not happen.

Keywords: Global Governance; Hegemony; Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1995

Political Economy and International Relations

Strange, Susan. In International Relations Theory Today, edited by Ken Booth, Steve Smith, 154-174. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.

Noting that it is over twenty years since she and others argued for the end of the false division between politics and economics, Strange argues that the development of modern IPE has been in reaction to events within the global system. She suggests that there is still a division between an American IPE based conception of the Politics of International Economic Relations, and a non-American approach that bears some similarity to her own framework as laid out in States and Markets (1988) and elsewhere. She once again makes many of the criticisms she has detailed before regarding the discipline's deference to international economics. Strange suggests the way forward is to conceptualise politics more widely, building on the work of moral philosophers and to apply her conception of structural power, as well as the more usual considerations of relational power.

Keywords: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Ken Booth and Editor: Steve Smith
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1995

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

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

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

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