GEN1000 Perspectives on General Education
Nil
The module provides an introductory overview of international political economy (IPE). In the era of globalization, international economic or financial issues such as financial tsunami in 2008, Brexit, Belt and Road Initiative, Sino-US trade war, and impacts of COVID-19 have profound international and transnational ramifications. So, how will sovereign states (or nonstate actors) deal with those transnational challenges that have direct impacts on economic development and national welfare?
In order to examine the problems facing multi-level players, the module explores the history of, and the current issues in IPE and introduces contending theoretical approaches of IPE to analyse them. Topics include (but not limited to) financial de-regulation, trade liberalisation and protectionism, international investment, politics of global finance and economic regionalism.
Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:
a. explain the historical evolution of international political economy since the end of World War II
b. identify and scrutinize the trends and characteristics of international trade and finance within global political contexts
c. critically examine the strategies of economic development and diplomacy by various IPE approaches
d. Evaluate current issues in global economy
1. International Political Economy as a social science discipline
2. Historical and theoretical framework of international political economy
2.1 Introduction: approaches to IPE
2.2 Post-war development of IPE
3. Politics of international trade
3.1 From GATT to WTO
3.2 Domestic politics of trade
3.3 Free trade agreements and economic regionalism
3.4 Trade war
4. Politics of international financial/monetary system
4.1 From Bretton Woods to globalisation
4.2 Politics of the international monetary system
4.3 Foreign direct investment (FDI)
5. Economic development and globalization
5.1 Economic development strategies
5.2 Politics of foreign aid
5.3 Politics of economic sanctions
5.4 Financial crisis and global governance
5.5 Anti-economic globalization
1. Assignment (15%)
2. Presentation (20%)
3. Test (25%)
4. Individual final paper (40%)
1. Frieden, Jeffry, David Lake, and J. Lawrence Broz. eds. (2017). International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth (6th edition). W.W.Norton.
2. Goldthau, Andreas, Michael F. Keating, Caroline Kuzemko, (2018) and. Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy and Natural Resources. Edward Elgar Publishing
3. Keskin, Tuğrul, and Ryan David Kiggins (2021). Towards an International Political Economy of Artificial Intelligence, Springer.
4. Krugman, P. (2020). Arguing with zombies: Economics, politics, and the fight for a better future (First ed.). New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company.
5. Oatley, Thomas. (2018). International Political Economy (6th edition). Boca Raton, FL : Routledge.
6. Ravenhill, J. ed. (2020). Global political economy (6th edition). London: Oxford University Press.
7. Shaw, Mahrenbach, Modi, Yi-chong, Shaw, Timothy M, Mahrenbach, Laura C, Modi, Renu, and Yi-chong, Xu (2019). The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy, Springer.
