International Economic Relations

In the attempt to deepen the understanding of Keynes' thought as an international macroeconomist, we explore the hypothesis of consistency between his general methodological approach to the economic material and his way of reasoning about international economic relations. As a first step toward this direction, we investigate the methodology of "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" and find that it reflects Keynes' attempt to cope with the attributes of the complexity characterizing the European settlement for the post-war period, e.g., 1) organic interdependence among variables at play, 2) irreducible dilemmas and situations of conflict, as well as 3) the need for external, public assistance to overcome the impasse and promote a "shared responsibilities" approach to the imbalances. Striking similarities appearing with the method of Keynes' economic diplomacy in the 1940s are shown to substantiate the current rediscovery of his plans for Bretton Woods.

"The impact of the global economic crisis on sub-Saharan Africa has been overwhelming. Average economic growth declined from about 6% per year from 2006-2008 to 2.5% in 2009 with per capita Gross domestic product (GDP) growth coming to a halt. Many African economies remain reliant on primary commodity exports which have rendered it vulnerable to external shocks. This paper analyzes the mechanism through which the crisis is affecting Africa and provides information on international and intra-African responses to the crisis. A qualitative mechanism of data collection and analysis has been adopted. The paper contends that the wider global political economy is exercising a modulating and a potentially restraining influence on the capacity of trade to act as an “engine of growth” in Africa. Hence, there is an urgent need for the state in Africa to articulate macroeconomic policies that will build its capacity to key into the global value chain.
Keywords: Economic Crisis, Trade, Regional Integration, General Agreement on Trade and Tariff, Millennium Development Goals"

"Book description

This book examines global governance through Foucaultian notions of governmentality and security, as well as the complex intersections between the two.

The volume explores how Foucault's understanding of the general economy of power in modern society allows us to consider the connection of two broad possible dynamics: the global governmentalization of security and the securitization of global governance. If Foucault's work on governmentality and security has found resonance in IR scholarship in recent years it is in large part due to his understanding of how these forms of power must necessarily take into account the management of circulation that, in seeking to maximize ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ circulatory flows, brings into play and problematizes the 'inside'/'outside' upon which domestic and international spaces have been traditionally understood. Indeed, Foucault introduces a set of conceptual tools that can inform our analyses of globalization, global governance and security in ways that have been left largely unexplored in the discipline of IR."

The "Greek crisis" was officially inaugurated on May 2010 with the loan the Greek government took from the IMF-European Union-European Central Bank troika, the largest a country had ever taken (€110 bn). Since then, the social implications of this crisis have been dramatic. The form and the scale of social phenomena observed today in Greece and particularly in Athens--e.g., extreme poverty and inequality, profound police violence, organized racist violence--are unprecedented for the country. Nevertheless, a diachronic examination of some socio-spatial aspects of Athens reveals that the social character of the current crisis has been taking shape for some time. This article aims shed light on the social shape of the crisis by outlining three such socio-spatial dimensions as they materialized in the case of Athens during 1990s and 2000s: first, the emergence of new forms of social exclusion and inequality; second, the vast project of urban (re)development and the new spatialities it produced, and third the emergence of novel forms of political and xenophobic violence.

""A Europe Made of Money is a new history of the making of the European Monetary System (EMS), based on extensive archive research. Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol highlights two long-term processes in the monetary and economic negotiations in the decade leading up to the founding of the EMS in 1979. The first is a transnational learning process involving a powerful, networked European monetary elite that shaped a habit of cooperation among technocrats. The second stresses the importance of the European Council, which held regular meetings between heads of government beginning in 1974, giving EEC legitimacy to monetary initiatives that had previously involved semisecret and bilateral negotiations. The interaction of these two features changed the EMS from a fairly trivial piece of administrative business to a tremendously important political agreement.

The inception of the EMS was greeted as one of the landmark achievements of regional cooperation, a major leap forward in the creation of a unified Europe. Yet Mourlon-Druol's account stresses that the EMS is much more than a success story of financial cooperation. The technical suggestions made by its architects reveal how state elites conceptualized the larger project of integration. And their monetary policy became a marker for the conception of European identity. The unveiling of the EMS, Mourlon-Druol concludes, represented the convergence of material interests and symbolic, identity-based concerns.""

Adoptée en 2005 et entrée en vigueur en 2007, la Convention sur la diversité des expressions culturelles (CDEC) se veut un mécanisme international de régulation de l’interface « commerce-culture ». Il s’avère que la construction de la CDEC ne s’arrête pas avec sa ratification, puisque celle-ci doit se confronter à la réalité à travers l’application de ses dispositions, le respect de ses prescriptions, ainsi que l’existence de moyens qui permettront de la concrétiser. Partant de l’hypothèse qu’il y a un décalage entre les normes prescrites par un instrument international et leurs résultats concrets, nous offrons une cartographie de la question « commerce-culture », se consacrant aux enjeux juridiques et politiques de la mise en œuvre de la CDEC. En ce sens, favorisant une sociologie politique de la mise en œuvre, nous cherchons à nous interroger sur la problématique du changement provoqué par la CDEC dans les pratiques des acteurs impliqués.

Σύμφωνα με τους περισσότερους αναλυτές, η Κίνα, με το τεράστιο μέγεθός της, τον οικονομικό της δυναμισμό και τις πολιτικές δεξιότητες των ηγετών της, είναι μακροπρόθεσμα ο πιο σοβαρός διεκδικητής της παγκόσμιας ηγεμονίας. Ασφαλώς υπάρχουν δύο βασικές προϋποθέσεις για να επιτύχει κάτι τέτοιο: πρώτον, να συνεχιστεί η οικονομική της ανάπτυξη και, δεύτερον, να διατηρηθεί η πολιτική σταθερότητα. Τίποτε από τα δύο δεν είναι βέβαιο. Παρά το ότι πολλοί μιλούν για την «ανερχόμενη υπερδύναμη» και για τον «κινεζικό αιώνα», οφείλει κανείς να είναι προσεκτικός. Οι προβλέψεις στις κοινωνικές επιστήμες είναι πάντοτε επισφαλείς και το μέλλον συχνά επιφυλάσσει εκπλήξεις.

This paper reports the results of a series of three co-laboratories organized by the Civil Society Dialogue Project (between July and October 2007) that aimed at bringing together Turkish-speaking and Greek-speaking Cypriot citizens to share their experiences and work together to create a citizens’ platform, as well as to devise an action plan for a reunited Cyprus. Twenty-one business and economist stakeholder representatives with diverse perspectives and experience participated in three successive bi-communal co-laboratories focused on the issue of economic integration in Cyprus, which was identified by Cypriot peace pioneers as one of the main causes of the perceived widening of the gap between the two divided communities in Cyprus. They invested more than 325 hours person-hours. The purpose of the co-laboratories was to support the dialogue of a motivated group of economists and business experts representing both communities. The co-laboratories provided space for exchanging ideas as well as exploring future options and goals, besides diagnosing current problems in economic integration and the free movement of goods and services in Cyprus. More specifically, the economic integration co-laboratories aimed at envisioning the ideal, desired situation, defining the current problematic economic situation on the island, and exploring the influences between alternative actions that could improve the current situation. The co-laboratories were organized using the Structured Dialogic Design process within the context of a rich web-based communication environment. We report the results from all three projects.

Since the Asian political and economic crisis, traditional concepts and practices of security have come under increasing question. However, there is substantial political and institutional resistance to rethinking national security in favour of human security. This essay addresses recent proposals for a 'reconciliation' of traditional and human security and, though it sees some value in doing so, it also argues that there are important political and conceptual reasons why this may not be possible, or desirable. Crucial here is the way both Asian and Western security policies have combined external defence with repressive approaches to internal security and national integrity. By way of an analysis of the difficulties in transforming security practices in post-Soeharto Indonesia, the essay concludes that operationalizing human security will require a serious commitment to reforming security doctrines, pursuing long-term conflict resolution, and people-centred change in the rules and structure of the global economic system.

Niccolò Machiavelli, the founder of modern political and administrative thought, made clear that an understanding of politics requires distinguishing between formal politics and what later, with Ludwig von Rochau, would become known as Realpolitik. No such distinction has been employed in the study of rationality. Yet I will argue that distinguishing between formal rationality and real rationality is as important for the understanding of rationality and planning as the distinction between formal politics and Realpolitik has been for understanding politics.

Threats, real or imagined have radically altered the way people live and perceive the world around them over the past 10 years. Nowhere has this phenomenon become more prevalent than in the United States. Given the publicity surrounding recent historical events, it is only normal to assume that the actual safety of America and Americans at greater risk than is was in the previous decade. To the average citizen, it might well appear that today’s world has become a more deadly or dangerous place, than it was 10 years ago, following the tragic events of 9/11. In order to obtain a more balanced approach and a clearer view, of the persistent threat environment, it is necessary to first identify the actors and the extent of the menace and subsequently compare them against measures which have been put into place to combat these dangers.