Encyclopedia of International Relations and Global Politics by Martin Griffiths

Author:Martin Griffiths [Griffiths, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General, Reference, Encyclopedias
ISBN: 9780415459181
Google: bRjfGQAACAAJ
Goodreads: 3107458
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-11-07T00:00:00+00:00

Substantive issue areas in IPE

Much detailed analysis of IPE of course focuses on specific substantive issue areas. It is impossible in this short space to examine the range of IPE issue areas in any detail. Instead, this section briefly discusses which issue areas tend to receive the most attention. IPE specialists in different countries of course emphasize different issue areas, but the discussion here addresses the subject in more general terms.

There is a tension between two major tendencies in the study of IPE: those who focus on more traditional subjects, and those who focus on a more comprehensive range of subjects including a number of newer issues. The most common traditional subjects include international trade, MNCs and foreign investment, and foreign debt and international development. Interest in these subjects in IPE has stemmed from the fact that they are highly political as well as economic in nature. For many years, international monetary relations were studied primarily by economists (and only a small number of political scientists). In contrast to trade and foreign investment, monetary relations was considered to be highly technical, and of little concern to interest groups and the general public. In more recent years, however, monetary and financial relations has become one of the most researched topics in IPE with the collapse of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the early 1970s; the foreign debt crisis in the 1980s; the financial crises in East Asia, Russia and Latin America in the 1990s; and the creation of the Euro as a potential competitor to the US dollar as the key international currency.

Those who take a more comprehensive approach to the study of IPE examine the traditional areas, but in addition also examine newer areas such as the environment; gender; migration; human rights; health issues stemming from globalization such as AIDS, SARS, and West Nile virus; illegal activity such as money laundering, drug trafficking, and the financing of terrorism; and military-economic interconnections. Those focusing on the traditional areas believe it is impossible to adequately examine a wider range of issues. Those taking a more comprehensive approach argue that newer areas such as the environment, gender, and migration deal with issues and groups that are often disregarded in society and do not receive sufficient attention.

In sum, IPE is a complex field that focuses on a diverse range of theoretical perspectives and substantive issue areas, and examines the linkages between domestic and international relations. As an interdisciplinary area of study, IPE presents a fundamental challenge to those who wish to adhere to traditional disciplinary boundaries. The message of many IPE specialists is that we should be concerned primarily with focusing on important issue areas, and with adopting relevant theoretical perspectives. The growing number and range of challenges confronting us in the global political economy should be of major concern to us, even if it means questioning our traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.