Dynamics of International Economic Order: Law, Politics, and Power

Catalog description

This course examines the cross-cutting relationship between political power and global economic governance. INTAF 815 Dynamics of International Economic Order: Law, Politics, and Power (3) This course explores the cross-cutting relationship between political power and global economic governance. It considers how nation-states define international economic order through the creation of legal frameworks and rules-based regimes; how shifts in the international distribution of power impact these frameworks and regimes; and how, in contemporary context, the United States and China approach global economic governance as part of their grand strategies. To ground their engagement, students will appraise philosophical and analytical perspectives on international economic exchange and economic order - mercantilism, liberalism, realism, and institutionalism. They will examine the concept of hegemonic hegemony and debates over whether economic openness requires a hegemon. Against this backdrop, students will investigate the relationship between American primacy and international economic order. They will consider how U.S. primacy and America's strategic aspirations coming out of World War II shaped the postwar economic order with regard to multilateral trade liberalization (the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs) and monetary relations (the Bretton Woods gold exchange standard). They will evaluate challenges to America's vision of postwar economic order posed by Asian developmentalism and "mercantile realism." Likewise, they will assess the OPEC revolution, the American/Western response thereto, and the impact of these developments on the international economic order. Students will continue examining the relationship between American primacy and international economic order by reviewing interpretations of economic globalization as a recasting of the original, post-World War II pax Americana. They will look at how reconstituting American primacy through globalization affected multilateral trade liberalization (the World Trade Organization), monetary relations (the post-Bretton Woods dollar standard), and financial liberalization. They will also evaluate competing visions of post-9/11 American primacy - liberalism, neoconservatism, and realism. Students will then turn to the impact of China's rise on international economic order. They will assay the historical backdrop of China's rise, ongoing processes of economic reform and modernization, Chinese grand strategy, and the challenges China's rise poses to international frameworks for trade and investment, finance and monetary relations, and energy. They will also consider the implications of China's rise for Asian regionalism, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and the "global South." Finally, through case studies on nuclear energy and nonproliferation and on Iran sanctions, students will look at how contestation between alternative views of international order affects global governance in specific arenas. They will also reflect on the ramifications of these cases for the future of international economic order.