Susan Strange - Paths to International Political Economy

The problems of a troubled world economy and the essentially political issues of how it should be managed make up the stuff of international political economy. The overwhelming importance of these questions has drawn ever increasing numbers of students and teachers in universities, colleges and schools to study the subject. There are many paths into international political economy for them to follow and this volume, originally published in 1984, discusses most of them.

The collection as a whole demonstrates that the field should be seen as the exclusive preserve of neither the economists nor the political scientists. On the contrary, there is much to learn from specialistsand practical people in government and businesswith a variety of backgrounds. A rich selection is therefore offered, including history, population studies, money, trade, technology and law, from which the reader can pick and choose at will. The contributions point to the landmarks of the subject and provide useful tips on the best books to read and the most interesting ideas to look out for.

First published in 1984
by George Allen & Unwin Ltd

This edition first published in 2010 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

1984 Susan Strange

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.

ISBN 0-203-85187-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 13: 978-0-415-57871-4 (hbk)

ISBN 13: 978-0-203-85187-6 (ebk)

ISBN 10: 0-415-57871-X (hbk)

ISBN 10: 0-203-85187-0 (ebk)

Susan Strange, 1984

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction
without permission. All rights reserved.

George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd,
Park Lane, Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 4TE, UK

Allen & Unwin, Inc.,
Fifty Cross Street, Winchester, Mass. 01890, USA

George Allen & Unwin Australia Pty Ltd,
8 Napier Street, North Sydney, NSW 2060, Australia

First published in 1984

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2010.

To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledges collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Paths to international political economy
1. Economic history1971
2. World politics19751985
I. Strange, Susan
330.9'048 HC59
ISBN 0-04-382041-7
ISBN 0-04-382042-5 Pbk

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Paths to international political economy
Includes index
Contents: 1. Perspectives and theory/by Roger
Tooze2. Why economic history?/by David Wightman
3. World politics and population/by Nicholas Demerath
[etc.]
1. International economic relationsAddresses,
essays, lectures. I. Strange, Susan.
HF14H.P3195 1984 337 8410996
ISBN 0-04-382041-7 (alk. paper)
ISBN 0-04-382042-5 (pbk.: alk. paper)

Set in 10 on 11 point Plantin by Spire Print Services Ltd, Salisbury, Wilts
and printed in Great Britain by Biddles Ltd, Guildford, Surrey

ISBN 0-203-85187-0 Master e-book ISBN

Once upon a time, the prairies of the American West were a vast, wide open range. It was there, according to the cowboy song, that

the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard
A discouraging word,
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

So it was until the present century with social science. That too was once a vast, wide open range where anyone interested in the behaviour of men and women in society could roam just as freely as the deer and the antelope. There were no fences or boundary-posts to confine the historians to history, the economists to economics. Political scientists had no exclusive rights to write about politics, nor sociologists to write about social relations.

All that has changed. In the past century a series of enclosure movements have progressively fenced off the open range in the West, and in the social sciences. Both have been subdivided into exclusive territories where trespassers meet with plenty of discouraging words, ominous warnings and keep-out notices. For the social sciences at leastwhatever may be the case for the prairiesthere have been serious losses to set against the gains from specialisation.

Yet one small corner of social science is still open and unenclosed. This book is dedicated to the hope that it may long remain so. International political economy is still unfenced, still open to all comers. It ought, we believe, to remain so. It would be fatal to its development if it were ever to become the exclusive preserve of economics, of international relations, or of political science. Only by remaining alertly attuned to a variety of special insights and concerns will it remain vigorous, alive and adaptable to the changing needs of world society. It must, moreover, remain open to the special contributions to be made not only by academics, but by bankers, journalists, corporate managers, diplomats and government officials, and practical people of all kinds. One of the fatal weaknesses of social science during the enclosure movement has been the tendency of each specialism to become a closed shop, a self-perpetuating secret society of the initiated, ever less able to talk to, or listen to, ordinary people in the rest of society. Openness within the social sciences is the best defence against the natural academic inclination to pretentiousness, pomposity and obfuscation.

In that belief, what I have collected here is a selection of somewhat unconventional views of what modern teachers of politics, orin schoolsof civics or current affairs, ought to know if they are to ventureas surely they ought tobeyond the confines of their own national scene into the open prairie of international political economy. Each of the contributions I have included offers the reader a new angle, a fresh perspective on some of the most contentious unsolved problems of the modern world.