Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy

2005 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-260
Author(s):  
Adam Harmes

Private Power and Global Authority: Transnational Merchant Law in the Global Political Economy, A. Claire Cutler, Cambridge Studies in International Relations; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. xiv, 306In Private Power and Global Authority, Claire Cutler presents a theoretically rich and historically detailed account of the interrelationship between transnational merchant law and broader patterns of restructuring in the global political economy. More specifically, she draws upon an historical materialist framework to demonstrate how “fundamental transformations in global power and authority are enhancing the significance of the private sphere in both the creation and enforcement of international commercial law” (1). In doing so, Cutler reveals the power relations and political implications inherent to this seemingly functional realm. At the same time, she looks through the other end of the telescope to show the broadly constitutive role that transnational merchant law has played in the transformation and legitimation of the emerging neoliberal order. In this sense, the changes that Cutler identifies in transnational merchant law both reflect, and help to constitute, broader changes in the global political economy.

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (04) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Agathangelou

International relations (IR) feminists have significantly impacted the way we analyze the world and power. However, as Cynthia Enloe points out, “there are now signs—worrisome signs—that feminist analysts of international politics might be forgetting what they have shared” and are “making bricks to construct new intellectual barriers. That is not progress” (2015, 436). I agree. The project/process that has led to the separation/specialization of feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist global political economy (FGPE) does not constitute progress but instead ends up embodying forms of violence that erase the materialist bases of our intellectual labor's divisions (Agathangelou 1997), the historical and social constitution of our formations as intellectuals and subjects. This amnesiac approach evades our personal lives and colludes with those forces that allow for the violence that comes with abstraction. These “worrisome signs” should be explained if we are to move FSS and FGPE beyond a “merger” (Allison 2015) that speaks only to some issues and some humans in the global theater.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 350-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Welsh

This article offers a critical theoretical exploration of the transformation of academic life that is currently taking place under the sign of ‘neoliberalization’. The main aim is to differentiate appropriation from exploitation as strategies of surplus labour dispossession, to identify the growth of appropriative techniques in academic life, and to situate the proliferation of such techniques in the broader transformations of global political economy. Alloyed with poststructuralist social theory, the historical materialist thrust of the article demonstrates how, in the technologically articulate ‘social factory’ of advanced capitalism, the spatial operations of these techniques of dispossession have a particularly ‘aesthetic’ character that is immanent to their appropriative operation, and which renders their workings both more discreet and effective. The article aims: (1) to problematize the neoliberal concepts of efficiency, transparency, and autonomy, in terms of practical outcomes; (2) to stimulate reflexive consideration of the ‘positioning’ of academics themselves in the reproduction of these techniques; and (3) to ask how these techniques might generate new ‘historical subjects’ of struggle and organization in academic life.


1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Thompson

Leadership long-cycle analyses emphasize the global political economy, sea power, and the cyclical rise and fall of maritime powers. Ludwig Dehio's interpretation of European international politics stressed regional politics, land power, and the cyclical rise and fall of continental powers. Since neither framework totally ignores what the other accentuates, a merger of the two perspectives is quite feasible and results in improved explanatory power. As an illustration, several of Dehio's generalizations about the nature and timing of regional power concentration are tested for the period 1494–1945. The outcome suggests that peaks of regional and global power concentration alternate. Global reconcentration is stimulated, at least in part, by the threat posed by a rising regional challenger.


Author(s):  
Ernesto Vivares ◽  
Raúl Salgado Espinoza

This paper focuses on the differences between International Political Economy (IPE) versus Global Political Economy (GPE) in Latin America. It explores how IPE tends to be taught and researched beyond mainstream IPE but in dialogue with it. It engages with the main literature of this field to discuss the contours and extension of a transition in teaching and research. It rests upon a historical sociological approach and employs a qualitative analysis of syllabi and curricula of various masters and doctoral programs on International Relations/Studies and underlying disciplines, and is complemented with semi-structured interviews with leading scholars of IPE from across the region. The paper argues that there is a shift from mainstream IPE to a new Latin American GPE as the result of a revitalization of the field and as a response to the new regional and global challenges. New dynamics of development, conflict and a changing world order coexist with old problems, pushing our field to find new responses, demonstrating the limits of the traditional knowledge, and requiring the development of new contributions. While the shift may be minor, it is constant and steady, and is neither homogenous nor dominated by a unique vision of the field, but it is defined by heterogeneity and plurality.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (04) ◽  
pp. 733-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahel Kunz

Recent discussions over similarities and differences between feminist security studies (FSS) and feminist global political economy (FGPE) approaches invite us to reflect on the underlying assumptions about knowledge production within feminist international relations (IR) more broadly (Allison 2015; Enloe 2015; see also the introduction to this forum). I use Nepali women ex-combatants’ life stories to make two specific points relating to these discussions. First, I illustrate how the separation of security and political economy issues cannot fully account for their life experiences. Second, and by way of overcoming this separation, I show how by beginning with life stories, we can develop a holistic analysis that challenges the broader Eurocentric politics of feminist IR knowledge production.


1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-356
Author(s):  
Michael Talalay

This paper addresses the issue of technological change in the global political economy. Specifically, it looks at the implications of a transition from hydro-carbons to hydrogen-powered fuel cells as the major source of energy for transportation, for electricity generation, and for combined heat and power. After briefly explaining how fuel cells work and what their direct benefits are, including dramatically reducing air pollution and global warming and shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy, the paper asks three main questions. First, what are the political, economic and technical obstacles that fuel cells must overcome. Second, what combination of market pull and public policy push will lead to their commercial success. Third, what are the implications of such success for the global political economy in three areas: changes in competitiveness in major industries; economic growth and development; and the global redistribution of political power.


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