IPM5030 - THEORIES AND THEORISTS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

Module Identifier	IPM5030
Module Title	THEORIES AND THEORISTS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
Academic Year	2001/2002
Co-ordinator	Dr Randall Germain
Semester	Semester 1
Course delivery	Seminar	1 x two hour seminar per week over one semester
Assessment	Essay	1 x 2,000 word critical review essay	30%
	Essay	1 x 6,000 word research essay	70%

Objectives

The main objective of this module is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the how the discipline of International Political Economy has evolved in the 20th century. The method used will be to assess critically leading texts in the discipline, together with appropriate commentaries, thereby providing an awareness of the particular way in which theoretical discourse has arisen within IPE. Upon completion of this module, students should be able to:

account for way in which theoretical discourse within IPE has emerged
demonstrate their knowledge of different approaches to IPE
assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of different approaches
evaluate the different contributions to the development of IPE as a discipline made by different approaches

Aims

This module explores the different theoretical approaches utilized within the discipline of International Political Economy. It begins by examining mainstream traditions of thought, principally neo-realism and neo-liberalism, and then moves on to consider alternative approaches grounded in Marxism, sociology and history. It ends by considering the newly-developed Gramsican approach to IPE. The module's principal starting point is the belief that the central intellectual task of IPE is to conceptually identify and explain the way in which the world political economy is organized.