IR454      Half Unit
Governing International Political Economy: Lessons from the Past for the Future

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

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Who governs the global economy? How do they do so? And to what ends do they govern it? This course examines these questions by examining the canonical theories of—and state approaches to—the challenges of global economic governance across the last several centuries. 
 
This course will appeal to students who want to delve deeper into the history, evolution, and current trajectory of the global order. It considers international order from the standpoint of both international security and international political economy. 
 
While this course takes history seriously, the primary objective is to use history from across the globe to tease out broader insights into those the challenges we face today. This course demonstrates the incomparable insights historical thinking offers in addressing contemporary challenges. Indeed, history has always been central to the study and practice of international political economy. The most influential scholars and practitioners of international political economy have repeatedly turned to history both to explain, and to offer a fresh perspective on, the great challenges of their day. This course is designed to help students cultivate that invaluable skill and habit of mind. It also brings modern social scientific theory to global history. 
 
 
Proceeding from the seventeenth century to the present, the course examines: 
 
- perspectives on international political economy from a diverse array of theorists and leaders (broadly construed) 
 
- the ongoing, timeless debate between these figures 
 
- the major shifts in the global economic order 
 
- the interaction between theories and policy in each shift 
 
 
The course is comprised of the following units/topics: 
 
- Unit 1. The 3 Big Questions: Structure versus Agency; Ideational versus Material variables; and States versus Markets 
 
- Unit 2. The Pre-war Global Economic Order: Liberalism versus Mercantilism 
 
- Unit 3. The Great War 
 
- Unit 4. The Rise of Fascism 
 
- Unit 5. The Generative World Wars: From Human Rights to the Post-war Liberal International Order 
 
- Unit 6. Rethinking Global Order: Decolonisation 
 
- Unit 7. From Marx to Marism 
 
- Unit 8. The Several Cold Wars 
 
- Unit 9. Liberal Triumph? The post-Cold-War Moment 
 
- Unit 10. The Future(s) of the International Economic Order(s) 
 

15 hours of seminars and 15 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

Students will be expected to produce an essay and deliver an in-class presentation. The formative essay provides students with an opportunity to write an essay and receive feedback to support their preparation for the summative essay. 

• Thomas Munn. England's Treasure by Forraign Trade. 
• Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.  
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Communist Manifesto. 
• JM Keynes. General Theory of Employment, Interest, & Money.
• Gandhi, Mohandas K. Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule.  

Essay (100%, 2000 words)