Theory

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

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

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

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1983

Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis

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

Strange's classic critique of regime theory, often used as a touchstone for those regime-theorists wanting to make the point they recognise that there have been criticisms of their approach. As such it has at least a totemic importance. Strange argues for five shortcoming of regime theory: that it is a passing fad, is imprecise, has a value bias, is too static and is too state-centred. As in 'What is Economic Power, and Who has it?' (1975) the underlying history of bargains, which condition regimes are emphasised as being crucial to any understanding of the IPE. The rather brief structural power analysis conflates what Strange would come to term primary and secondary structures. Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy, edited by Roger Tooze and Christopher May. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Keywords: Foundational Work; Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; Regime Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1982

Looking Back - But Mostly Forward

Strange, Susan. Millennium: Journal of International Relations 11, no. 1 (1982): 38-49.

In this survey article, Strange looks back across the first ten years of Millennium to examine the development of International Relations, although as she makes plain she prefers the term International Studies. Having seen the field expand from a focus on the foreign polices of various states, she maps the increasing interest in the international system itself. However, she then argues that what is now needed is a further development of research into the structures of this system. This acts as a useful complement to the final section of ‘Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis' (1982) giving a discipline based context for her arguments regarding the development of her research programme for International Political Economy.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1982

The Politics of Economics: A Sectoral Analysis

Strange, Susan. In Economic Issues and the Atlantic Community, edited by Wolfram F. Hanrieder, 15-26. New York: Praeger, 1982.

Strange here proposes a structural approach that is implied by her argument that an analysis of the global political economy must be concerned with its ‘environment’. However, while suggesting three of her four later structures - here, security, monetary and production structures - she also includes a number of other structures - transport, trade, communication - that would later become in her schema, secondary structures. Strange repeats her critique of the recent history of the discipline of IPE before suggesting that a need for sectoral analysis seems to be gaining currency. She briefly discusses the steel and aerospace sectors, to argue for the need to engage in a structuralist analysis of political economy. She also suggests that the ‘bargains’ that IPE should be concerned with include those between firms and governments and those between labour and firms. That is, she is arguing for an analysis that widens its analysis to include all sorts of non-state actors, and recognition of the global nature of the political economy.

Keywords: Production; Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Wolfram F. Hanrieder
Keywords: Production, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1980

Reactions to Brandt. Popular Acclaim and Academic Attack

Strange, Susan. International Studies Quarterly 25, no. 2 (1981): 328-342.

Strange’s ‘review of the reviews’ draws two distinctions between reactions to the Brandt Report - American and European, popular and academic. Her discussion briefly outlines the ‘global Keynsianism’ aspects of the report before noting the criticisms that were levelled at it. After noting that in the academy many of the analyses of the problems and ‘pie in the sky’ solutions were nothing new, her final lament is that the report continues to accept the curative value of research and knowledge, set aside from the political process. She concludes by arguing that the report cannot be safely dispensed with as whatever its faults and shortcomings it identifies major problems that will continue to beset the global system without some sort of political determination to address the problem of mal-distribution of welfare. The recognition of the importance of global political processes continues to be a central theme in her work.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Economics

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

Year of Publication: 1981

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

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

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

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

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

Year of Publication: 1981

The World's Money: Expanding the Agenda for Research

Strange, Susan. International Journal 36, no. 4 (1981): 691-712.

After a survey of current modes of thought, both academic and practitioner, Strange concludes that while much analysis can usefully illuminate the mechanisms of the global monetary system, there is little attempt ally this to a consideration how the system links up with and effects the values of and outcomes in a globalised society. She wants work on the international monetary system to go beyond a mere mechanical explanation and to move towards a more political analysis (which would also include an assessment of the impact of technology on global finance). In this she compares the study of the financial system unfavourably with the increasing sophisticated account of the global ecological system. Strange also briefly touches on the creation of credit and the transfer of risk which would be taken up subsequently in 'The Credit Crisis: A European View' (1983) and 'Structures, Values and Risk in the Study of the International Political Economy' (1983).

Keywords: Money and Finance; Theory

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

Year of Publication: 1981

The Mamagement of Surplus Capacity: Or How Does Theory Stand up to Protectionism 1970s style?

Strange, Susan. International Organisation 33, no. 3 (1979): 303-334.

In this article, which is a clear precursor to The Politics of International Surplus Capacity (with Roger Tooze, 1981), Strange discusses the management of surplus capacity in three sectors of the international economy - steel, textiles and shipbuilding, and the recourse to protectionism. She then goes on to discuss the problems this implies for mainstream theories of international economics. She argues that Liberalism, theories of development, and organisational or functionalist theories do not offer satisfactory explanations for the resurgence of tariff barriers. This is partly because none of these theories deal with economic power satisfactorily, though Strange offers little in the way of a corrective. She concludes by again arguing that it is increasingly difficult to draw a line between international and domestic policy, and thus theories that only deal with one or other side of this duality will by implication fail in their analysis. An earlier version was presented at the Tokyo meeting of the ISA, BISA and the Japan Association of International Relations in October 1977.

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Production, Theory, Trade, Structural Power, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1979

The Management of Surplus Productive Capacity

Strange, Susan. In Economic Issues of the Eighties, edited by Nake M. Kamrany and Richard H. Day, 226-246. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.

This chapter is a lightly edited version of 'The Management of Surplus Capacity: Or how does theory stand up to protectionism 1970s style?' (1979).

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

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: Nake M. Kamrany and Editor: Richard H. Day
Keywords: Production, Structural Power, Power, Theory, Trade, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1979

Review of Robert O. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye (1977) Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition and Edward L. Morse (1976) Modernization and Transformation of International Relations

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 53, no. 2 (1977): 270-273.

In this short review of two important books in the development of International Political Economy, Strange briefly suggests the position which she would adopt more forthrightly later in her career: that IPE was not a sub-discipline of International Relations, but rather sought to completely redefine what it is to study the global system.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1977

The Study of Transnational Relations

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 52, no. 3 (1976): 333-345.

Published alongside 'Who Runs World Shipping?' (1976). In this article Strange sets out an outline method for sectoral analysis in the international economy. This is prefaced by a critical engagement with the Nye and Keohane 'transnational politics' approach. After stressing the inseparability of politics and economics, and the crucial authority/market trade-off, she suggests three analytical questions that must be asked in any sectoral analysis; questions about the loci and distribution of power over economic processes, the who, why, and how of economic intervention, and the question of the consequences, and benefits. Only by building up from systematic sectoral analyses can the asymmetrical bargaining processes, the impact of technology, the influence of markets and the politicisation of the international political economy be understood.

Keywords: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1976

Who Runs World Shipping?

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 52, no. 3 (1976): 346-367.

Published alongside 'The Study of Transnational Relations?' (1976). Based on the theory developed in that article, Strange's sectoral analysis (of world shipping), which carries some material forward from 'International shipping and the developing countries' (with Richard Holland, 1976).

Keywords: Theory; Trade; International Institutions; Transportation; International Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Theory, Trade, International Institutions, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1976

What is Economic Power, and Who Has it?

Strange, Susan. International Journal 30, no. 2 (1975): 207-224.

Here Strange commits to print an early version of the structure of power theory which she would develop over the next thirteen years. In this manifestation, there are three dimensions of power in the international political economy - security, 'ideology' and economic. There is more concern, though, with a location of four level or stages at which economic power is apparent - the world market structure; international co-operative relations; national/governmental control of markets; and the operational level of the economic transactions themselves. The importance of the history of bargains for the international structure is identified, but not developed fully. This is based on a paper given to the ISA Conference in March 1973 entitled 'The Market as an International Actor - The Case of the Eurocurrency Markets.' 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: Political Economy; Structural Power, Power; Theory; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Structural Power, Power, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1975

International Economic Relations I: The Need for an Interdisciplinary Approach

Strange, Susan. In The Study of International Affairs: Essays in Honour of Kenneth Younger, edited by Roger Morgan, 63-84. London: RIIA/Oxford University Press, 1972.

Strange’s second major attack on the discipline of international economics as it then stood, see also 'International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect' (1970). She derides the academic ‘apartheid’ that separates off political considerations from the economic and argues that what is required is a single international studies discipline that encompasses both the politics and economics of international relations (what would eventually become International Political Economy). The only part of international studies that has moved in this direction is ‘development economics’. Their openness to the insights of other approaches needs to be adopted by other sectors of study. She argues that this should start in the universities with more emphasis on multi-disciplinary training.

Keywords: Political Economy; Theory; International Economics; International Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Roger Morgan
Keywords: Politcal Economy, Theory, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1972

Sterling and British Policy

Strange, Susan. London: Oxford University Press, 1971.

Strange proposes a four element theoretical framework for international currencies in the international political economy: Neutral currencies; Top currencies; Master Currencies; and Negotiated currencies, where each category exhibits certain economic and political characteristics. A currency may display more than one set of characteristics but will belong predominantly to one category. She then goes on to discuss the development of the international political economy in light of the decline of sterling and the rise of the dollar. The discussion of the sectoral implications for Britain is firmly placed in its international political context, prefiguring Strange’s later argument that sectoral analysis should precede general analysis of the international political economy.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Political Economy; Theory; United Kingdom

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Money and Finance, Political Economy, Theory, United Kingdom, 1970's
Source and Medium: Book

Year of Publication: 1971

International Economics and International Relations: a Case of Mutual Neglect

Strange, Susan. International Affairs 46, no. 2 (1970): 304-315.

Strange’s first call for the development of International Political Economy as a separate discipline. She identifies a major void between the academic study of international relations and the study of international economics. The failure to fill this void will result in a loss of relevance for the subjects and an inability to deal with the major problems that beset the international economy. This will also lead to the inability to analyse the two main tendencies in the international economic system; growing international co-operation and organisation, and increased domestic defensiveness over national welfare issues. Only by introducing economics into International Relations courses, and politics into International Economics courses could these shortcomings be addressed. 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: Political Economy; Theory; Foundational Work; International Relations; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Political Economy, Theory, Foundational Work, 1970's
Source and Medium: Journal Article

Year of Publication: 1970

Research on International Organisation

Strange, Susan, Geoffrey Goodwin. Research on International Organisation (Social Science Research Council Review of Current Research: 2). London: Heinemann Educational, for the Social Sciences Research Council, 1968.

Acting as a rapporteur for the SSRC Advisory Group on International Organisation (chaired by Goodwin), Strange maps out current and future research as well as examining its organisation and administration. Though published two year prior to Strange’s first call for the establishment of International Political Economy, in 'International economics and international relations: a case of mutual neglect' (1970), this report on the discussion of research into international organisation and international relations reveals many themes (from the impact of structure and technology to the importance of international economics) she would develop in her own work.

Keywords: Knowledge; Political Economy; Theory; International Economics

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Geoffry Goodwin
Keywords: Knowledge, Political Economy, Theory, 1960's
Source and Medium: Report

Year of Publication: 1968