PIA 2301 - INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Minimum Credits: 3
Maximum Credits: 3
This course focuses on institutions, policies and political relationships that have shaped international economic affairs. The course will explore relations between economic processes and political processes in the context of international politics, with particular reference to the dilemmas that such relations present to policy-makers. The questions to be asked include: 1. What analytic challenges arise in trying to understand the interaction between the exercise of power and the pursuit of wealth? How do different ‘schools’ of International Political Economy (IPE) depict this relationship? 2. What are the most influential such schools, what are the assumptions, key concepts and values of each and what are the implications of each for public policy? 3. Historically, what are the main economic and political forces that have shaped the international economy? 4. What domestic and external strategies have states adopted in order to develop their own economies and to benefit from exchanges with other countries (while minimizing their vulnerability)? 5. For what purposes have states sought to cooperate with each other in the management of the international economy? How successful have their efforts been? What kinds of institutions have they created so as to protect their national interests while cooperating with others? What have been the strengths and weaknesses of particular international organizations, and what might be done to strengthen them? 6. To what extent has the ability of states to direct their own economies been weakened by the advent of ‘globalization’? 7. What are the major challenges currently facing policy-makers in the management of the international economy?
Academic Career: Graduate
Course Component: Lecture
Grade Component: Grad Letter Grade
Course Requirements: Graduate School of Public and International Affairs students only.
Course Attributes: African Studies, Asian Studies, Latin American Studies, Russian & East European Studies, West European Studies

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