Biotechnology in the Global Political Economy

Abstract v. 3-15-04 (9002 words)

New lead industries have been important elements in the rise and prolongation of economic hegemonies in the past. For example, British cotton textile manufacturers were able to make profits exporting their goods all over the world in the early nineteenth century.  As other countries developed cotton textile manufacturing and the profits declined, the British economy managed to stay ahead of the game by exporting the machinery that made cotton textiles, and then by moving into other capital goods sectors such as railroads and steamships.  Similarly, U.S. economic hegemony after World War II was first fueled by automobile exports.  After greater international competition emerged, the U.S. continued to garner technological rents by inventing, producing and exporting new products including nuclear energy equipment, military technology and information technology. Now many believe that U.S. advantages in biotechnology could substantially contribute to a new round of U.S. economic hegemony within the next two decades.  This is report of an on-going research project being carried out at the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California-Riverside. Our research is evaluating this contention by examining the spatio-temporal patterns of biotechnology research, development and commercialization in the world economy since 1980, as well as patterns of consumer and political resistance to some of the products of biotechnology. It is hypothesized that consumer and political resistance will affect some subsectors of the biotechnology industries differently from others. We are estimating the sizes of effects under different conditions in order to parameterize models of alternative future scenarios. Our research on historical comparisons and the quantitative nature of recent trends will allow us to estimate the probabilities of these future scenarios.

Free Global Political Economy: Understanding the International Economic Order ebook

Author:Robert Gilpin Date:20100808  DS:75 ISBN:

This book is the eagerly awaited successor to Robert Gilpin's 1987 The Political Economy of International Relations, the classic statement of the field of international political economy that continues to command the attention of students, researchers, and policymakers. The world economy and political system have changed dramatically since the 1987 book was published. The end of the Cold War has unleashed new economic and political forces, and new regionalisms have emerged. Computing power is increasingly an impetus to the world economy, and technological developments have changed and are changing almost every aspect of contemporary economic affairs. Gilpin's Global Political Economy considers each of these developments. Reflecting a lifetime of scholarship, it offers a masterful survey of the approaches that have been used to understand international economic relations and the problems faced in the new economy. Gilpin focuses on the powerful economic, political, and technological forces that have transformed the world. He gives particular attention to economic globalization, its real and alleged implications for economic affairs, and the degree to which its nature, extent, and significance have been exaggerated and misunderstood. Moreover, he demonstrates that national policies and domestic economies remain the most critical determinants of economic affairs. The book also stresses the importance of economic regionalism, multinational corporations, and financial upheavals. Gilpin integrates economic and political analysis in his discussion of "global political economy." He employs the conventional theory of international trade, insights from the theory ofindustrial organization, and endogenous growth theory. In addition, ideas from political science, history, and other disciplines are employed to enrich understanding of the new international economic order. This wide-ranging book is destined to become a landmark in the field. More Reviews and Recommendations

Global Political Ekonomi

INTRODUCTION

A ground swell of Global protesters including labor unions, farmers, environmentalists, human rights activists and anarchists disrupts and aborts the World Trade Conference in Seattle in 1999.

The passage of a bill imposing heavy tariffs or import restrictions on a commodity in one country  affects  the economy and even the stability of the government of another country.

A rebellion in a province producing a scarce raw material in one country  disrupts the supply for the industry of another country, causing lay-offs and social disruption.

The decision by a government to make its currency not convertible on the international exchange market devalues its currency, making foreign goods expensive and causing inflation, but discourages foreign investment and protects local industry.

These are the kind of issues addressed on this site.

This site deals with intertwined global economic and political issues. The emphasis on intertwined refers to the Complex Approach which is the method of inquiry used on this site as distinct from the “systems approach” which is commonly used for social, economic and political analyses.

The field is also called "international political economy."  But that term does not meet the complex approach criteria.  Global political economy goes beyond relations between nations, i.e., nation-states.  For example, drug trafficking, illegal arms deals, smuggling goods and people, and laundering their financial products, which are estimated to amount to a trillion dollars annually, are not taking place in the framework of relations between nation-states.

Professor of Global Political Economy in the Department of Political Science and the Center for Global Change and Governance

Abridged résumé, December 2007

Philip G. Cerny was born in New York City. He is Professor of Global Political Economy in the Division of Global Affairs and Department of Political Science, Rutgers University-Newark (New Jersey, U.S.A). He studied at Kenyon College (Ohio) and the Institut d’Études Politiques (Paris), and received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). He has previously taught in the U.K. at the Universities of York, Leeds and Manchester, and has also been a visiting professor or visiting scholar at Harvard University (Center for European Studies), the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques (Paris), Dartmouth College, New York University, the Brookings Institution, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies (Cologne, Germany).

He is the author of The Politics of Grandeur: Ideological Aspects of de Gaulle’s Foreign Policy (Cambridge U.P, 1980; French edition, Flammarion, 1986) and The Changing Architecture of Politics: Structure, Agency and the Future of the State (Sage, 1990). He edited or co-edited four books in the 1980s on various aspects of French politics. More recently he is editor of Finance and World Politics: Markets, Regimes and States in the Post-Hegemonic Era (Edward Elgar, 1993), and co-editor of Power in Contemporary Politics: Theories, Practices, Globalizations (with Henri Goverde, Mark Haugaard and Howard H. Lentner) (Sage, 2000) and Internalizing Globalization: The Rise of Neoliberalism and the Erosion of National Models of Capitalism (with Susanne Soederberg and Georg Menz) (Palgrave, 2005).

His article “Globalization and the Changing Logic of Collective Action”, which originally appeared in International Organization (Autumn 1995), has been reprinted in Charles Lipson and Benjamin J. Cohen, eds., Theory and Structure in International Political Economy (MIT Press, 1999) and Jeffry A. Frieden and David A. Lake, eds., International Political Economy: Perspectives on Global Power and Wealth (Routledge, 4th Edition, 2000).

More recently he has published a wide range of journal articles and book chapters, including:

    “Neoliberalism and Place: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Borders”, forthcoming in Bas Arts, Henk van Houtum and Arnoud Lagendijk, eds., State, Place, Governance: Shifts in Territoriality, Governmentality and Policy Practices (Berlin: Springer, 2008)
    “Embedding Neoliberalism: The Evolution of a Hegemonic Paradigm”, forthcoming in the Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy (Spring 2008)
    “The Governmentalization of World Politics”, forthcoming in Elinore Kofman and Gillian Youngs, eds., Globalization: Theory and Practice (London: Continuum, 3rd edition 2008), pp 221-236
    “Restructuring the State in a Globalizing World: Capital Accumulation, Tangled Hierarchies and the Search for a New Spatio-Temporal Fix”, review article, Review of International Political Economy, vol. 13, no. 4 (October 2006), pp. 679-695
    “Dilemmas of Operationalizing Hegemony”, in Mark Haugaard and Howard H. Lentner, eds., Hegemony and Power: Consensus and Coercion in Contemporary Politics (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books on behalf of the International Political Science Association, Research Committee No. 36 [Political Power], 2006), pp. 67-87

    “Plurality, Pluralism, and Power: Elements of Pluralist Analysis in an Age of Globalization”, in Rainer Eisfeld, ed., Pluralism: Developments in the Theory and Practice of Democracy (Opladen: Barbara Budrich on behalf of the International Political Science Association, Research Committee No. 16 [Socio-Political Pluralism], 2006), pp. 81-111
    “Different Roads to Globalization: Neoliberalism, the Competition State, and Politics in a More Open World” (jointly authored with Georg Menz and Susanne Soederberg), in Susanne Soederberg, Georg Menz and P.G. Cerny, eds., Internalizing Globalization: The Rise of Neoliberalism and the Erosion of National Models of Capitalism (Palgrave, 2005), pp. 1-30, and “Capturing  Benefits,  Avoiding  Losses: The United States, Japan and the Politics of Constraint”, in ibid., pp. 123-148
    “Political Globalization and the Competition State”, in Richard  Stubbs  and Geoffrey R. D. Underhill, eds., The Political Economy of the Changing Global Order (Oxford University Press, 3rd edn. 2005), pp. 376-386
    “Power, Markets and Authority: The Development of Multi-Level Governance in International Finance”, in Andrew Baker, Alan Hudson and Richard Woodward, eds., Governing Financial Globalization (Routledge, 2005)
    “Governance, Globalization and the Japanese Financial System: Resistance or Restructuring?”, in Glenn Hook, ed., Contested Governance in Japan (Routledge, 2005)
    “Terrorism and the New Security Dilemma”, U.S. Naval War College Review (Winter 2005)
    “Political Economy and the Japanese Model in Flux: Phoenix or Quagmire?”, New Political Economy, review article, vol. 9, no. 1 (March 2004), pp. 101-111
    “Globalisation and Public Policy Under New Labour” (with Mark Evans), Policy Studies (January 2004)
    “Globalisation and Social Policy” (with Mark Evans), in Nick Ellison and Chris Pierson, eds., New Developments in British Social Policy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003)
    “Globalization and Other Stories: Paradigmatic Selection in International Politics”, in Axel Hülsemeyer, ed., Globalization in the 21st Century: Convergence and Divergence (London: Palgrave), pp. 51-66, and “The Uneven Pluralization of World Politics”, in ibid., pp. 173-175
    “Webs of Governance and the Privatization of Transnational Regulation”, in David M. Andrews, C. Randall Henning and Louis W. Pauly, eds., Governing the World’s Money (Cornell University Press, 2002)
    “From ‘Iron Triangles’ to ‘Golden Pentangles’? Globalizing the Policy Process”, Global Governance (October 2001)
    “Structuring the Political Arena: Public Goods, States and Governance in a Globalizing World”, in Ronen Palan, ed., Contemporary Theories in the Global Political Economy:  Emerging Debates, Methodologies and Approaches (Routledge, 2000)
    “Globalisation and the Restructuring of the Political Arena: Paradoxes of the Competition State”, in Randall Germain, ed., Globalization and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000)
    “Political Agency in a Globalizing World: Toward a Structurational Approach”, European Journal of International Relations (December 2000)
    “The New Security Dilemma: Divisibility, Defection and Disorder in the Global Era”, Review of International Studies (October 2000)
    “Globalisation and the Erosion of Democracy”, European Journal of Political Research, vol. 36, no. 1 (August 1999), pp. 1-26
    “Globalization, Governance, and Complexity”, in Aseem Prakash and Jeffrey A. Hart, eds., Globalization and Governance (Routledge, 1999), pp. 184-208
    “Globalizing the Political and Politicizing the Global: International Political Economy as a Vocation”, New Political Economy, vol. 4, no. 1 (January1999), pp. 147-62
    “Neomedievalism, Civil War and the New Security Dilemma: Globalisation as Durable Disorder”, Civil Wars, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring), pp. 36-64



He is currently working on chapters for the Handbook of Power (Sage Publications for the IPSA Research Committee on Political Power) and the RIPE Handbook on International Political Economy, as well on a book project provisionally entitled Multi-Nodal Politics: Political Dynamics of a Globalizing World which is intended to develop the application of pluralist and neopluralist approaches – especially the concept of “political process” and the role of agency – to the study of globalization.

He is a past Chair of the International Political Economy Section of the International Studies Association and past member of the I.S.A.’s Long-Range Planning Committee, and has been a member of the Executive Committees of the British International Studies Association and the Political Studies Association of the U.K. He is on the editorial boards of the European Journal of International Relations, the Review of International Studies, the International Studies Quarterly, Civil Wars, the Journal of International Trade and Diplomacy and the Political Research Quarterly. He is a member of the Executive Boards of two Research Committees of the International Political Science Association—R.C. 16 (Socio-Political Pluralism) and R.C. 36 (Political Power).

Phil Cerny is also an interpreter of the traditional folk music of North America and the British Isles. His CD “Atlantic Passages” was released in 2004 by Hudson Records (U.S.A.) and Circuit Music (U.K.).

A Handbook of International Trade in Services

International trade and investment in services are an increasingly important part of global commerce. Advances in information and telecommunication technologies have expanded the scope of services that can be traded cross-border. Many countries now allow foreign investment in newly privatized and competitive markets for key infrastructure services, such as energy, telecommunications, and transport. More and more people are travelling abroad to consume tourism, education, and medical services, and to supply services ranging from construction to software development. In fact, services are the fastest growing components of the global economy, and trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) in services have grown faster than in goods over the past decade and a half. International transactions, however, continue to be impeded by policy barriers, especially to foreign investment and the movement of service-providing individuals. Developing countries in particular are likely to benefit significantly from further domestic liberalization and the elimination of barriers to their exports. In many instances, income gains from a reduction in protection to services may be far greater than from trade liberalization in goods. In light of the increasing importance of international trade in services and the inclusion of services issues on the agendas of the multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations, there is an obvious need to understand the economic implications of services trade and liberalization. A Handbook of International Trade in Services provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject, making it an essential reference for trade officials, policy advisors, analysts, academics, and students. Beginning with an overview on the key issues in trade in services and discussion of the GATS, the book then looks at trade negotiations in the service sector, the barriers to trade in services, and concludes by looking at a number of specific service sectors, such as financial services, e-commerce, health services, and the temporary movement of workers.

Índice:
PART I. THE FRAMEWORK OF TRADE IN SERVICES; 1. Overview; 2. The GATS; 3. The Basic Economics of Services Trade; PART II. ANALYZING TRADE IN SERVICES; 4. Measuring Trade in Services; 5. Empirical Analysis of Barriers to International Services Transactions and the Consequences of Liberalization; 6. Regionalism in Services Trade; PART III. SECTORAL AND MODAL ANALYSIS; 7. Financial Services and International Trade Agreements: The Development Dimension; 8. Trade in Infrastructure Services: A Conceptual Framework; 9. Transport Services; 10. Trade in Telecommunications Services; 11. Trade in Health Services and the GATS; 12. E-Commerce Regulation: New Game, New Rules?; 13. The Temporary Movement of Workers to Provide Services (GATS Mode 4); APPENDIX. A GUIDE TO SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS

Greening the Economic Bailout

Could the economic bailouts that seem to pour endlessly out of Washington become clean, green stimulus for our nation’s economy? Host Mike Tidwell discusses how these economic stimulus packages could put us on a path to fight global warming with Betsy Taylor, the founder of 1Sky and Heidi Garrett Peltier, an economist with the Political Economy Research Institute and a co-author of Green Recovery.

K.C. Golden, the policy director for Climate Solutions, discusses his recent editorial on the bailout of America’s big three automakers. Then we get a view from a different type of climate spectator, Bill O’Toole is the prognosticator for the J. Gruber’s Hagers-Town Town and Country Almanack.

Gender in the Practice of International Political Economy and Global Security

The role of women in conflict areas encouraged the emergence of other issues that also implicate gender, that is associated with women's access to natural resources are limited. Conflict situations and natural disasters, for example, has led to disruption of activities of daily needs, including water as an essential requirement for life. In this situation, access to water has become a field "fight" for women separately.