United States

Criticizing US Method and Thought in International Relations: Why a Trans-Atlantic Divide Narrows IR's Research Subject

Verbeek, Bertjan. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 139-158. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Theory; United States; International Relations

Contributor(s): Bertjan Verbeek, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Theory, United States, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

Still an Extraordinary Power, but for How Much Longer? The United States in World Finance

Helleiner, Eric. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 251-270. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: Structural Power, Power; Money and Finance; United States

Contributor(s): Eric Helleiner, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: Structural Power, Power, Money and Finance, United States, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

The United States and World Trade: Hegemony by Proxy?

Goldstein, Judith. In Strange Power: Shaping the Parameters of International Relations and International Political Economy, edited by Thomas Lawton, James Rosenau, Amy C. Verdun, 349-272. London: Routledge, 2000.

Keywords: United States; Structural Power, Power; Trade

Contributor(s): Judith Goldstein, Editor: Thomas Lawton, Editor: James Rosenau and Editor: Amy C. Verdun
Keywords: United States, Structural Power, Power, Trade, Strange-Influenced Works, 2000's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 2000

The 'Fall' of the United States: Peace, Stability, and Legitimacy

Strange, Susan. In The Fall of Great Powers: Peace, Stability and Legitimacy, edited by Geir Lundestad, 197-211. Oslo and Oxford: Scandinavian University Press and Oxford University Press, 1994.

Once again Strange argues at length that the notion of American decline in the global system is mistaken if examined through her structural perspective. She presents a brief history of the previous fifty years to explore how America's 'fall' can be proposed and why this misunderstands power in the global system. She uses this insight to argue for an International Political Economy approach to the problem of American hegemony, but she also warns that technological changes feeding into structural changes may make drawing lessons from the decline of previous hegemons difficult if not impossible. She concludes that while structural change may offer the best chance for a more just and peaceful system, it may also open up the possibility of extensive disorder and insecurity in the future, leading to problems of legitimate rule and authority.

Keywords: Hegemony; Structural Power, Power; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Geir Lundestad
Keywords: Hegemony, Structural Power, Power, United States, 1990's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1994

Who Governs? Networks of Power in World Society

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

Starting from Strange's response to Waltz's (in)famous London School of Economic lecture (see Millennium 22/2 - Summer 1993) in this article she first argues for a wider reading of politics – not just what states do. She then briefly summarises her arguments regarding structural power before discussing the roles states have historically played as producers of security, credit, market relations and environment. The power over finance and environment has moved to centre stage, but states have been losing relative power over these areas. But this is not to agree with the America-in-decline writers. Rather Strange argues that the US. retains structural power, which the non-US Group of Seven states, through joint action need to encourage Americans to recognise. This will enable the US. to once again act as hegemon for the general good. America's ability to supply market public goods needs to be matched by its will to do so, through diplomatic pressure. This is one of the few pieces where Strange makes her underlying prescriptive stance on the need for American leadership completely explicit. Reprinted in: Authority and Markets: Susan Strange’s Writings on International Political Economy, edited by Roger Tooze and Christopher May. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

Keywords: Hegemony; States; Structural Power, Power; Theory; United States

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

Year of Publication: 1994

The Persistence of Problems in EC-US Relations: Conflicts of Perception?

Strange, Susan. In The External Relations of the European Community, in Particular EC-US Relations, edited by Jürgen Schwarze, 109-118. Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlasgesellschaft, 1989.

Strange suggests that the two primary activities of any political organisation are the furtherance of security and the control of money, and it is these issues that remain at the centre of the problem of US-Europe relations. Here Strange again challenges the assumption of a loss of American hegemony (and therefore power) in the global system. This leads her to emphasise the need for both political will by the system's strongest state as well as international and multilateral efforts to attend to the problems of the global system, for it is different perception on either side of the Atlantic of America's potential to act which are causing continued friction. While the Europeans see an America unwilling to act, the US Government claims it cannot act.

Keywords: Europe; Hegemony; Money and Finance; Security; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Jürgen Schwarze
Keywords: Europe, Hegemony, Money and Finance, Security, United States, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1989

Politics, Trade and Money

Strange, Susan. In Europe, America and the World Economy, edited by Loukas Tsoukalis, 243-255. Oxford: Basil Blackwell for the College of Europe, 1986.

Strange identifies two main obstructions to a constructive dialogue between the United States and Europe over international trade: America's lack of interest in maintaining a steady provision of credit to the interdependent international system; and Europe's inability to take responsibility for its own defence and security, and therefore reducing its dependence on America. This leads Strange to conclude that the U.S. has abused rather than lost its power in the international economy, refusing to allow the separation the international risks from domestic bank activities in developing countries, taking no notice of the Brandt's commissions call for a independent multilateral financial institution, and not taking the role of international lender of last resort. This refusal led to the upheavals which the system was then experiencing. Underlying these problems is the lack of political will on behalf of the United States government to act as a responsible hegemon. Thus the problem is not declining US power, but rather the lack of a counter-balance from Europe, a theme she first explored at length in 'Cuba and After' (1963) and to which she would return to in 'The persistence of problems in EC-US relations: conflicts of perception?' (1989) and elsewhere.

Keywords: Money and Finance; Hegemony; Europe; United States

Contributor(s): Susan Strange and Editor: Loukas Tsoukalis
Keywords: Money and Finance, Hegemony, Europe, United States, 1980's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1986

Cuba and After

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1963, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 1-28. London: Stevens, 1963.

Resisting the prevailing 'informed' analysis that the Cuban Missile Crisis was more an apparent danger than a real one, Strange sides with the 'man in the street' to argue it was a very real moment of possible war and as such profoundly affected the US system of alliances. However, she also suggests that the immediate aftermath appears to have been a retreat into détente, rather than renewed confrontation. She then turns to survey the impact of the crisis on the various strands of the Western alliance(s), and concludes that the inability of Britain to choose between America and Europe is as much a product of an American inability to decide whether it is serious about an Atlantic Union or not. Interestingly as in her later work, Strange was concerned about the manner in which the US was a hegemonic power and the problem of political will when it was threatened outside its traditional regional sphere of domination, or by the needs of multilateralism in the international system.

Keywords: Hegemony; Security; United States; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Hegemony, Security, United States, 1960's
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1963

British Foreign Policy

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1955, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 35-53. London: Stevens, 1955.

Strange argues that a state whose power is waning is more liable to make fatal mistakes. British economic survival could only be made possible by conditions of expanding world trade, rising standards of living in export markets and a minimum of economic nationalism. Britain's future thus largely depends on the US, as she is no longer as essential as a market and supplier of capital as she once was to the members of the Commonwealth. As she notes, a small fall in American consumption led to a large cut in American imports from the Sterling Area, revealing this dependence. Strange suggests that as a result a major role of British foreign policy is to sustain the US's role in the international economy to ensure continued expansion and growth.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance; Trade; United Kingdom; United States; Economic Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, Trade, United Kingdom, United States, 1950's and earlier, Susan Strange
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1955

The Economic Work of the United Nations

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1954, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 118-140. London: Stevens, 1954.

Strange argues that governments have increased power over domestic economic forces, and feel that this power is necessary and desirable. The UN has generated and publicised debates surrounding economic development, and led indirectly to 'point four programme' financial aid. But the US has in practice been given a paternal right to define and prioritise the economic goals of the UN, and set the agenda of acceptable economic policies. Strange suggests that freedom of trade in the dollar area is seen as much more important to the creation of world free trade than relations between other trading states. She argues that the UN has failed in its over-optimistic aims because the responsibility for economic stability and progress was assumed by its members to take precedence over a wider responsibility for international economic progress and stability.

Keywords: Hegemony; Money and Finance; United States; Economic Development; United Nations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Hegemony, Money and Finance, United States, 1950's and earlier
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1954

The Atlantic Idea

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1953, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 1-19. London: Stevens, 1953.

Strange discusses the fears of the British and French that the ideals of NATO would break down and be replaced by the domination of US arms and money. Strange suggests that in a bi-polar world, the US must be conciliatory to her allies because it is neither possible, nor does the US wish, to further its ends by force. Strange recognises the force of 'the Atlantic idea' as part of this project, and notes its defining role for these debates.

Keywords: Hegemony; Knowledge; Security; United States; International Relations; Knowledge Production

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Hegemony, Knowledge, Security, United States, 1950's and earlier
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1953

The Schumann Plan

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1951, edited by George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 109-130. London: Stevens, 1951.

Again discussing the linkage between politics and economics, Strange points out that economic integration could not be achieved without political control from above, that it is not possible for economic integration to move forward without the political will for it to happen. However the clear aim of the Schumann Plan was to redress the balance of economic power in Western Europe in favour of France and at the expense of Germany, rather than necessarily provide for increased integration.

Keywords: Europe; Hegemony; Political Economy; United States; International Relations; European Integration

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Europe, Hegemony, Political Economy, United States, 1950's and earlier
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1951

Point Four. Helping Develop Half a World

Strange, Susan. Peacefinder Series: 7. London: United Nations, 1950.

Strange comments on the UN deliberations concerning the future of Palestine and highlights the central factor that gave the Zionists an in-built advantage at the assembly. While the Arabs were negotiating in a state that was essentially antipathetic to their struggle, their opposite numbers were surrounded by sympathisers and supporters both within and outside the organisation. She also discusses some of the limitations and problems with such negotiations within the forum of the UN, and alludes to structural impediments to the ‘fair’ settlement of differences.

Keywords: Hegemony; United States; International Relations; Economic Development

Contributor(s): Susan Strange
Keywords: Hegemony, United States, 1950's and earlier
Source and Medium: Report

Year of Publication: 1950

Truman's Point Four

Strange, Susan. In Year Book of World Affairs 1950, edited by W. Harold Dalgliesh, George W. Keeton, Georg Schwarzenberger, 264-288. London: Stevens, 1950.

Strange discusses Truman's fourth declared guiding rule of American foreign policy for the years 1949-1953, that 'Our aim should be to help the free peoples of the world, through their own efforts to produce more clothing, more materials for housing and more mechanical power to lighten their burdens', stressing the technical and international nature of future assistance. She notes that American 'internationalism' could be broken under the stresses of changing political and strategic circumstances. While the US needs to remain embedded within the international economy, the costs of technical co-operation are largely borne by the targeted Third World countries themselves. Strange points to the linkage between economics and politics, as a way of highlighting questions concerning the degree of freedom to use funds as recipients of US controlled aid and loans wish.

Keywords: Hegemony; United States; US Foreign Policy; International Relations

Contributor(s): Susan Strange, Editor: W. Harold Dalgliesh, Editor: George W. Keeton and Editor: Georg Schwarzenberger
Keywords: Hegemony, United States, 1950's and earlier
Source and Medium: Book Chapter

Year of Publication: 1950