POLS 232 International Political Economy

This course is an undergraduate survey of the field of international political economy (IPE). It is intended as an introduction for students who already have some background in the field of international relations and are interested in exploring international economic relations at a deeper level. The course covers major theoretical empirical and policy perspectives. The theme to be explored in this course is "National Interest vs. Global Governance?" - that is we will explore the theory and history of international political economy as an extension of national interest and an arena for the development of global governance and the question of whether or not these two dimensions of international political economy are compatible or competitive with each other. The first part of the course will cover the basic concepts and theoretical foundations of IPE. The focus is on core theoretical principles and approaches. The goal is to understand how theory is framed and "works" the potential inferences of this theory and the issues of contention within the field. The second part of the course draws on the theoretical foundations to examine a set of specific international economic issue arenas including international trade finance and economic development.