The Rise of International Political Economy
- The idea of “managing interdependence” came into vogue.
- While the originators of the idea of interdependence were looking for new sources of order in the system, some realists were retooling to include economic relationships in their theories.
- One reaction to theories of interdependence and international regimes was to return to the earlier ideas of the post-WW2 realists.
Neo-Realism
- A key figure in this revival was Kenneth Waltz and his main contribution was of International(1979).
- Waltz argued for the key importance of the distribution of power in the international system because there was no real order other than a state of “anarchy” in that system in which states had to defend themselves.
- Keohane tried to reconcile the neo-realist focus on power and the distribution of power with the IPE schools focus on regimes and regime change
Other Isms
- His answer was to suggest a connection between the distribution of power and regime changes (building on the work of earlier scholars like Charles Kindleberger, John Ruggie, Stephen Krasner, and Robert Gilpin).
- Thus was Hegemonial Stability Theory (HST) born
- Constructivism
- Post-Modernism
- Neo-Marxism
- Feminism
Summing up
- Theories of international relations have evolved in ways that are somewhat different from those in other disciplines: more faddish, less driven by empirical research.
- While there is some continuity in their focus on war and peace and the distribution of power, in the last century the gap between those scholars looking only at military-strategic issues and those looking at a broader range of phenomena has grown significantly.
Using Power in IR
- Countries acquire international power through wealth and bullying smaller countries through military intimidation.
- Some order grows out of relative power amongst nations.
- During the 19th Century, the British Empire arranged much of the globe to its liking, and small, weak lands largely obeyed.
- Such power relationships create international systems, the way power is distributed around the globe.