Week 2: International political economy and its methods

Question 1

List some examples where International Politics and International economics were tightly linked in the 1970s

Answer 1

• Oil crisis
• Breakdown of the Bretton Woods
• Third World debt crisis, the fall of communist regimes
• The rise of the East Asian Newly Industrialized Countries (NICS)
• The expansion of the European Union

Question 2

Is it possible to have a world without IPE?

Answer 2

No, it is hard to imagine the world without IPE since the mutual interaction of International Politics, International Relations and International Economics is today widely appreciated.

Question 3

What is Gilpin’s definition of IPE?

Answer 3

IPE encompasses the study of the interaction of “state and market,” and thus of politics and economics (1987) - used for many years.
In 2001, Gilpin abandoned this definition because it failed to capture the significance of nonstate actors in the field

Question 4

What is Kees Van Der Pul’s definition of IPE?

Answer 4

IPE is best understood in light of how the scope of social sciences has been parceled out into separate disciplines, beginning with the split between economics and sociology

Question 5

Core Issues in IPE?

Answer 5

Transnational corporations, international finance, international trade

Question 6

What is the changing importance in IPE?

Answer 6

the centrality of Third World development or North-South conflict

Question 7

What are the issues in decline in IPE?

Answer 7

East–West relations, energy and the impact of producer cartels (*A cartel is a formal agreement between a group of producers of a good or service to control supply or to regulate or manipulate prices).

Question 8

What are some issues in rise in IPE?

Answer 8

environmental concerns and gender

Question 9

Descriptive vs. Analytical research?

Answer 9

• Descriptive research includes surveys and fact-finding inquiries of different kinds – to describe the state of affairs as it exists at present
• Analytical research is to make a critical evaluation of the material

Question 10

Applied vs. Fundamental research?

Answer 10

• Applied research aims to solve an immediate problem facing society.
• Fundamental research is concerned with generalizations and with the formulation of a theory.

Question 11

Quantitative vs. Qualitative research?

Answer 11

• Quantitative research is based on the measurement of quantity or amount.
• Qualitative research is concerned with qualitative phenomena, i.e., phenomena involving quality or kind.

Question 12

Conceptual vs. Empirical research?

Answer 12

• Conceptual research is related to some abstract idea(s) or theory - to develop new concepts or to reinterpret existing ones.
• Empirical research relies on experience or observation alone – data-based research.