The Political Economy of African International Relations

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
New States ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Our understanding of the international political economy of Africa is underdeveloped; we have inadequate data and theories about the development of underdevelopment on the continent. Even the orthodox study of international politics and foreign policy in Africa is largely a recent phenomenon, stimulated by the rise of new states in the last twenty years. This essay, then, can be no more than a review of the field and a lament over its deficiencies. In particular, we are concerned about: i) the relative inattention afforded the impact of international politics on the rate and direction of social change in African states; ii) the need for a new conceptual framework to advance our understanding of the linkage politics between African elites and external interests; and iii) the related growth and international inequalities on the continent. This essay proceeds therefore from a critical review of analyses of the international political economy of Africa to a tentative presentation of a new typology of states and regimes, regions and behavior, in Africa which reflects the importance of those variables on which students of political economy focus.

The Political Economy of African International Relations

1975 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Timothy M. Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Critical Review ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
New States ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
The Impact

Our understanding of the international political economy of Africa is underdeveloped; we have inadequate data and theories about the development of underdevelopment on the continent. Even the orthodox study of international politics and foreign policy in Africa is largely a recent phenomenon, stimulated by the rise of new states in the last twenty years. This essay, then, can be no more than a review of the field and a lament over its deficiencies. In particular, we are concerned about: i) the relative inattention afforded the impact of international politics on the rate and direction of social change in African states; ii) the need for a new conceptual framework to advance our understanding of the linkage politics between African elites and external interests; and iii) the related growth and international inequalities on the continent. This essay proceeds therefore from a critical review of analyses of the international political economy of Africa to a tentative presentation of a new typology of states and regimes, regions and behavior, in Africa which reflects the importance of those variables on which students of political economy focus.

Duterte’s Foreign Policy Pivot and Its Impact on Philippine Trade and Investments: An International Political Economy Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 127-160
Author(s):  
Jenny D. Balboa
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
The Political ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Trade And Investment

Abstract Since the Philippines elected President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016, the country’s foreign policy seems to have become more uncertain. President Duterte’s mercurial personality and antagonistic tirades against the country’s traditional Western allies, including the United States (US) and the European Union (EU), and his statements of building closer ties with China and Russia, had changed the political and diplomatic tone of the Philippines overall. Certainly, the political relationship between the Philippines and the West has been changed by Duterte’s strong remarks against the US and EU. Has this change spilled over to the economy? The paper presents an international political economy framework in examining the impact of Duterte’s foreign policy pivot to the country’s foreign economic relations, focusing on trade and investment. The paper argues that Duterte’s foreign policy shift is mainly shaped by Duterte’s “politics of survival”. Not firmly anchored in any idea, norms, or interest that can clearly benefit the country, Duterte is unable to provide coherent guidance and leadership on the foreign policy pivot, particularly on the economy. Duterte’s lack of guidance provided the technocrats with the policy space to continue the policies from the previous administration and not to divert radically from previous economic policies. The stability of the economic institutions provided a refuge in the period of uncertainty. As a result, the foreign economic relations of the Philippines has not radically shifted. The trade and investment situation of the Philippines remained stable, and economic relations with traditional partners are maintained.

E.H. Carr and IPE: An Essay in Retrieval

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 952-962
Author(s):  
Randall Germain
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Scale ◽  
Strong Emphasis ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Way

Abstract Although the work of E.H. Carr has a prominent place in the scholarly history of international relations (IR), it is notably absent from the discipline of international political economy (IPE). This is puzzling, because Carr's analysis of international politics places a strong emphasis on the organic connection between politics and economics on an international scale. On this reading, his principal publications on IR can also be seen to chart a sophisticated conceptualization of what I want to label historical IPE. This essay retrieves such a reading of Carr for the discipline of IPE. It begins by interrogating the way in which Carr's work has been appropriated by modern IPE scholarship, in order to highlight the limited use made of the political economy dimension of his research. I then explore the historical and political economy aspects of Carr's writings to consider how his contribution might advance recent contemporary theoretical debate in the discipline. I pay particular attention to how his work charts an historical conception of IPE that can synthesize and move beyond the rationalist/constructivist binary that currently dominates theorizing in the discipline.

IR, imperialism, and the Global South: From Libya to Venezuela

Politics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 026339572110612
Author(s):  
Matteo Capasso
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Global South ◽  
Media Representations ◽  
Capitalist Development ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
Growing Body

This article brings together two cases to contribute to the growing body of literature rethinking the study of international relations (IR) and the Global South: The Libyan Arab al-Jamāhīrīyah and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Drawing on media representations and secondary literature from IR and international political economy (IPE), it critically examines three main conceptual theses (authoritarian, rentier, and rogue) used to describe the historical socio-political formations of these states up to this date. Mixing oil abundance with authoritarian revolutionary fervour and foreign policy adventurism, Libya and Venezuela have been progressively reduced to the figure of one man, while presenting their current crises as localized processes delinked from the imperialist inter-state system. The article argues that these analyses, if left unquestioned, perpetuate a US-led imperial ordering of the world, while foreclosing and discrediting alternatives to capitalist development emerging from and grounded in a Global South context. In doing so, the article contributes to the growing and controversial debate on the meanings and needs for decolonizing the study of IR.

scholarly journals Incorporating Indigenous Nations into International Political Economy

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel L. Wellhausen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Context ◽  
Indigenous Nations ◽  
Indian Nations

This comment elaborates on and extends the roundtable’s discussion by turning to the context of Indigenous peoples. Even setting aside normative motivations, expanded study of Indigenous peoples provides clear opportunities for theory development in international political economy and international relations more broadly. For example, the legal status of American Indian Nations’ 326 unique political jurisdictions can inform the political economy of marginalized identity groups in a non-Westphalian but nonetheless international context.

Negotiation in Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristopher Ramsay
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
International Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Alternative Means

Foreign policy often involves two or more countries finding a path from contested interests to a peaceful agreement that incorporates the political and security desires of the relevant parties. In almost every case, the possibility of armed conflict as an alternative means of settling disagreements casts its shadow. Recent research on foreign policy can be well understood as following the view, first articulated by Thomas C. Schelling, that all international relations is really about negotiations and bargaining. This worldview brings a number of aspects of international politics into a natural and coherent framework. We can understand what leads countries to fail to reach peaceful solutions when disagreements arise, how the issues on the agenda influence the content and success of negotiations, and how domestic constituencies shape the ability of leaders to make agreements. Equally important, we can understand the trade-offs between short-term negotiating advantages and long-term issues of reputation.

scholarly journals In search of Karl Polanyi’s International Relations theory

2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 401-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth Dale
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
European Integration ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
International Order ◽  
New Regionalism ◽  
Karl Polanyi

AbstractKarl Polanyi is principally known as an economic historian and a theorist of international political economy. His theses are commonly encountered in debates concerning globalisation, regionalism, regulation and deregulation, and neoliberalism. But the standard depiction of his ideas is based upon a highly restricted corpus of his work: essentially, his published writings, in English, from the 1940s and 1950s. Drawing upon a broader range of Polanyi’s work in Hungarian, German, and English, this article examines his less well-known analyses of international politics and world order. It sketches the main lineaments of Polanyi’s international thought from the 1910s until the mid-1940s, charting his evolution from Wilsonian liberal, via debates within British pacifism, towards a position close to E. H. Carr’s realism. It reconstructs the dialectic of universalism and regionalism in Polanyi’s prospectus for postwar international order, with a focus upon his theory of ‘tame empires’ and its extension by neo-Polanyian theorists of the ‘new regionalism’ and European integration. It explores the tensions and contradictions in Polanyi’s analysis, and, finally, it hypothesises that the failure of his postwar predictions provides a clue as to why his research on international relations dried up in the 1950s.

Recasting Gramsci in international politics

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 373-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
OWEN WORTH
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Politics ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Ernesto Laclau ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
Stuart Hall ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
Alternative Understanding ◽  
Realist Concept

AbstractGramscian theory has had a profound influence on critical and Marxist thought within International Relations (IR), particularly in bringing an alternative understanding to the realist concept of hegemony. Despite these developments much Gramscian theory remains developed within the often narrow sub-discipline of International Political Economy (IPE), with Gramscian scholars such as Stuart Hall, Raymond Williams and Ernesto Laclau from diverse disciplines outside of IR largely ignored. This article argues that Gramscian theory needs to be re-thought so that it moves away from the Coxian dominated ontology that it is currently situated within, towards one which both provides a more open theory of global hegemony and engages more with civil societal areas that have often been ignored by those within IPE.

The Evolving State of the State in International Political Economy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Ba
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Cross Section ◽  
Open Economy ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Research Paradigm ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Complex Interdependence

Three established conceptions of the nation-state have a long and well-established tradition in the field of International Political Economy (IPE), each aligning with a major research paradigm within IPE or the broader field of international relations: realism, open economy politics, and constructivism. A fourth, emerging, research paradigm called the “New Interdependence Approach” or the “Political Economy of Complex Interdependence” offers a promising new conceptualization of the nation-state that encompasses the best insights offered by traditional paradigms. This article reviews the evolution of scholarly thinking about the nation-state within the field of IPE and proposes a new, more encompassing conception of the nation-state as a cross-section of the international political economy multiplex.

Old Wine in Old Bottles: Recent Contributions to British Foreign Policy and European International Politics, 1789–1848

1987 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul W. Schroeder
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
The Political ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Military Organizations ◽  
British Foreign Policy ◽  
War And Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This review article has a conventional purpose, namely, to assess the contributions made by thirteen recent books, most by British historians, to the history of British foreign policy and the European states system during the revolutionary, Napoleonic, and post-Napoleonic eras. There is, however, a problem. None of the books is conventional diplomatic history. Almost half relate only indirectly to foreign policy, while for the remainder foreign policy constitutes only part of their subject matter. The review therefore consciously runs two risks: that of judging the books by inappropriate standards and that of drawing conclusions about current historiography in this field and period from an inappropriate sample. The reader will have to judge whether the results justify the procedure.Geoffrey Best's War and Society in Revolutionary Europe illustrates the problem. Best clearly succeeds in his goal of going beyond the study of military organizations to the study of war itself as a “unique human interest and activity.” The book is far-ranging, delightfully written, based on wide reading, and packed with insights. It also contributes substantially to the history of international politics, mainly by demonstrating how powerful an impact armies and combat had. Yet from the political historian's standpoint there is ground for some frustration as well as for pleasure. Best's descriptions of how armies developed from the Old Regime into the nineteenth century and his analyses of the impact of war in 1792–1815 are excellent for France and Britain and adequate for Prussia and Spain.

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