مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Boundaries of International Political Economy as An Academic Discipline

Abstract :

Although it is accepted that International Relations emerged as a discipline in 1919 when David Davies endowed the first chair, generally it can be stated that it is a discipline which has become mature in the second half of the twentieth century. By the end of Second World War the discipline focused on ‘‘high politics’’ such as war, peace, power, security and interests and ‘‘low politics’’ such as economy, actors, socio-cultural matters were handled as secondary issues. International Political Economy nested with IR has recently been an autonomous discipline in 1970s. In the modern world the national and international politics and economy that have increasingly been interrelated due to the mutual relations created an urgent need for International Political Economy as a discipline. In order to understand current problems of the world, it is necessary to take into account the interactions between economy and politics both at national and international levels. Basis of this interaction can be partially understood by exceeding the traditional limits of politics and economics. In this context International Political Economy (IPE) seems to promise to discover the intersections among some social disciplines dealing with international politics. In this study political economy, formation of IPE as an academic discipline, its disciplinary autonomy and its main research topics are discussed so that the boundaries of an alternative discipline can be delimited