This important survey, first published in 1981, presents some different and often contending perceptions of the problem of surplus capacity as it re-emerged in the world of the 1980s – an economic climate with many parallels to the current era. Susan Strange and Roger Tooze deliberately assembled writers of many different nationalities, professional backgrounds and ideological convictions and asked them to make the case for their version of the problem. Some even doubt if there really is much of a problem at all. Others see it as fundamentally political, or monetary; as inherent in the capitalist system, or as the product of short-sighted pressure groups and perverse politicians. To help readers judge for themselves, there are specialist contributions on surplus capacity as it has shown up in different sectors of the world economy – shipbuilding, textiles, steel, petrochemicals, insurance and banking – and on the responses of different actors in the international system, including the European Community and multinational corporations.

This is the second of two anthologies on international political economy drawn from articles published in the journal International Organization. The book is organized into four sections: Trade, Multinational Firms and Globalization, Money and Finance, and Emerging Issues.

Adopting new and much more comprehensive concepts of both power and politics, The Retreat of the State develops a theoretical framework to show who really governs the world economy. It goes on to explore some of the non-state authorities, from mafias to the Big Six accounting firms and international bureaucrats, whose power over who gets what in the world encroaches on that of national governments. The book is a signpost, pointing to some promising new directions for the future development of research and teaching in international political economy. Its originality and scope make The Retreat of the State of great importance for scholars and students of international relations, business and management.

After the end of World War II, the United States, by far the dominant economic and military power at that time, joined with the surviving capitalist democracies to create an unprecedented institutional framework. By the 1980s many contended that these institutions--the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (now the World Trade Organization), the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund--were threatened by growing economic nationalism in the United States, as demonstrated by increased trade protection and growing budget deficits. In this book, Robert Gilpin argues that American power had been essential for establishing these institutions, and waning American support threatened the basis of postwar cooperation and the great prosperity of the period. For Gilpin, a great power such as the United States is essential to fostering international cooperation. Exploring the relationship between politics and economics first highlighted by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and other thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Gilpin demonstrated the close ties between politics and economics in international relations, outlining the key role played by the creative use of power in the support of an institutional framework that created a world economy. Gilpin's exposition of the in.uence of politics on the international economy was a model of clarity, making the book the centerpiece of many courses in international political economy. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, when American support for international cooperation is once again in question, Gilpin's warnings about the risks of American unilateralism sound ever clearer.

The International Political Economy Yearbook will be published annually under the sponsorship of the International Political Economy Section of the International Studies Association at the Department of Political Science, Brigham Young University. The intent of the series is to describe and explain the structure and the dynamic operation of the international political economy and to explore their political, social, and economic impact on different countries, be they advanced market economies, newly industrializing countries, or underdeveloped countries. This first volume is an overview of the policy and research field of international political economy studies. It explores what international political economy is; what approaches and theories might broaden and deepen our understanding of the phenomena addressed; what perspectives seem inappropriate or misdirected; and why neither international relations scholars nor mainstream economists can any longer claim status as senior partners in the community of scholars and policymakers interested in these issues. It also addresses major policy problems confronting both advanced and developing countries, including commodity trade, foreign investment, regulation of multinational corporations, food shortages and other development problems, industrial crises in the United States and Europe, international debt, and the increased role of the state in different economies.

What is the source of the increasing politicization of Japan's budgetary policy? In this text, Takaaki Suzuki explores this question, finding answers in the interplay of domestic and international politics from the early 1970s through the 1990s.