“Global Integration as Seen Through the Lenses of the Ideologies of the International Political Economy” by Kapok Tree Diplomacy<\/p>\n
Preview\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>Written April 2010<\/span> Section One \u2013 Conceptions of IPE<\/b><\/p>\n Main Actors and Their Goals. <\/i>Dunne and Schmidt state that \u201cRealism identifies the group as the fundamental unit of political analysis\u201d and \u201cthe state as the legitimate representative of the people\u201d (93), while other actors such as international organizations (IGOs) or multinational corporations (MNCs) have lesser prominence (103). Realists view the international system as competitive and inherently anarchic, thus driving states to \u201csimultaneously pursue wealth and national power\u201d under the principle of self-help (Gilpin 425). Some realists argue that states are power maximizers, while others argue they are security maximizers (Dunne & Schmidt 101). The end goal in either case is survival, and economic success is central to each strategy.<\/p>\n Liberals position the \u201cindividual consumer, firm, or household\u201d as the main actor within IPE. Gilpin asserts that the \u201cprimary objective of economic activity (for liberals) is to benefit consumers\u201d by using free market principles for \u201corganizing and managing a market economy in order to achieve maximum efficiency, economic growth and individual welfare\u201d (421). Goal attainment is furthered by these actors peacefully cooperating in a way that allows supply and demand to settle into a natural, stable equilibrium (Gilpin 422). Other groups like IGOs and MNCs compete for centrality with states \u201cthrough multiple channels of interaction\u201d(Dunne 115).<\/p>\n The main actors within Marxism are social classes, principally the bourgeoisie upper class who owns the economic means of production and the proletariat lower class who works for the bourgeoisie (Lynch 537-539). The goal of the bourgeoisie is wealth accumulation for themselves and increasing power and profits for their class while subjugating the proletariat in the process. Gilpin notes that Lenin reformulated Marxism to the extent that \u201cthe principal actors in effect became competing mercantilistic nation-states driven by economic necessity\u201d (430). Whether the main actors be classes or states, the goal is the same in Marxism \u2013 maximization of elitist interests.<\/p>\n Policies and Views on International Relations.\u00a0 <\/i>Gilpin asserts that the \u201cforemost objective of nationalists is industrialization\u201d as it is the \u201cbasis of military power and central to national security\u201d (\u201cThree\u201d 425). Realists, or economic nationalists or mercantilists (as referred to in IPE terminology), also emphasize national self-sufficiency which may result in protectionist measures to insulate infant or declining industries (Gilpin,\u201dThree\u201d, 426). \u00a0James Fallows points out how politics drives economics in nationalism by comparing it to liberalism and illustrating the importance of \u201cdeliberate development,\u201d production over consumption, results over process, \u201cbusiness as war\u201d over \u201cbusiness as peace,\u201d and national interests over individual interests (61-87). In realism, states seek to maximize their sovereign independence through wealth and power.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The era of globalization has brought us unprecedented levels of economic liberalization, political upheaval, technological advances, prosperity in unlikely places and enormous flows of capital, ideas, goods and services throughout the world. Critics point out that global integration has also created unique systemic instabilities, regional and country-based financial crises, wealth disparities, real wage stagnation, sovereignty issues and unhealthy financialization of capitalism. Not many would argue that we currently find ourselves in a significant economic downturn. What does this crisis mean for the future? This paper will explore some explanations and solutions based upon an analysis of International Political Economy (IPE) ideologies. <\/p>\n Realism, Liberalism and Marxism provide us with theoretical tools to systematically sort through the phenomenon of globalization in a comparative, detailed and open-minded way that is fully aware of the underlying assumptions, values and presuppositions that govern each theory\u2019s interpretation of what happened, where we are, and where we are going. Robert Gilpin asserts that they are, in fact, more than theories and actually represent ideologies which \u201centail a total belief system concerning the nature of human beings and society\u201d (419). They represent distinct views and core assumptions involving the main actors and their goals, the importance of politics, the ideal goals of economic activity, the nature of economic relations and the best policies for states to pursue (Gilpin 419-420). <\/p>\n Using three levels of analysis, this paper will assert that although Realism, Liberalism and Marxism differ significantly in their conception of IPE and assessment of global integration, it is primarily liberal economic principles operating within a realist framework that provide the most efficient mechanism for solving complex, global financial problems and generating extraordinary opportunity, innovation and socio-economic freedom for future generations. <\/p>\n The first level of analysis will examine the different conceptions of (IPE) within each ideology, delineating similarities as well as significant differences. The second level will assess the phenomenon of global integration against the backdrop of each ideology\u2019s important beliefs and policy implications. The third level of analysis consists of an assessment of the merits and dangers of \u201chegemonic stability\u201d in international trade in context to the three IPE ideologies. The paper will conclude with some final thoughts on preventing future financial crises. <\/p>\n * The views and opinions expressed in this paper are completely my own and do not represent the views or opinions of the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of the Navy (DON) or any of the Armed Forces. *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,7,229],"tags":[75,158,144,161,151,159,37,150,152,134,136,154,155,119,162,147,149,156,126,67,140,93,1342,146,64,143,148,141,109,145,63,128,142,62,157,153,160,127],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international-relations","category-international-political-economy","category-paid-content","tag-balance-of-power","tag-balance-of-payments","tag-bourgeoisie","tag-capitalism","tag-concentration-of-capital","tag-currency-stability","tag-democracy","tag-disproportionality","tag-falling-rate-of-return","tag-foreign-direct-investment","tag-free-markets","tag-free-trade","tag-global-financial-markets","tag-global-integration","tag-globalization","tag-grieco","tag-harmony-of-interests","tag-hegemonic-stability-theory","tag-imf","tag-institutions","tag-international-organizations","tag-international-relations-2","tag-international-political-economy","tag-lenin","tag-liberals","tag-marxism","tag-mercantilists","tag-multinational-corporations","tag-norms","tag-proletariat","tag-realists","tag-rules","tag-security-maximizers","tag-self-help","tag-susan-strang","tag-uneven-development","tag-unipolarity","tag-world-bank"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31a0x-33","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kapoktreediplomacy.com\/hp_wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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