Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
financial economics and politics. We will briefly discuss these other two
strands before exploring Stranges work on power, and should also note
that all three strands feed into each other. This typology is more for
convenience than a fixed division in her work.
Strange has made a number of criticisms of both the preoccupations
and the methodology of International Relations. She has argued that much
theoretical work is not really theory at all if theory should offer explanation
based on "principles independent of the phenomena to be explained". 3
Merely putting one event after another in a descriptive manner, without
explicitly linking them causally, cannot count as explanation. Neither can
the formulation of a new international taxonomy be characterised as a
theoretical explanation - naming and sorting does not explain.4
Perhaps more outspokenly, Strange maintained that merely importing
models and theories (with adaptations) from other social sciences (game
theory or systems theory, for example) does not produce explanatory
theories of international relations either. A theory of international relations
should be based on the study of international relations, not of some
supposedly parallel phenomena. However, while this makes some sense,
Strange may dismiss possibly useful theories by taking this position. 5
Crucially for Strange, theory "must seek to explain some aspect of
the international system that is not easily explained by common-sense". 6
Paradoxically, in part Stranges explanation of structural power is built on
what she herself calls "no more than a statement of common sense". 7 It
may be sufficient for us to draw a distinction between assumptions that are
common-sense and explanations that are common-sense, to overcome this
apparent contradiction. Strange has offered her assumptions based on
common-sense as an entry point into her more complex structural theory,
rather than as a theory in themselves.8
For Strange, the greatest misperception in International Relations is
that the international system has not changed, and never will. Many of the
failings of present theories stem from their attempts to make theoretical
statements that are insensitive to historical developments. 9 She argues
that social scientists need to be much more cautious in the claimed scope
of their theoretical statements, and to be aware of the limits and dangers of
stretching theory too far. Once it is understood that history and institutions
(and their history) matter, then ahistorical generalisations become an
extension of historically specific cases to the level of law. There is a need,
to which Strange responds, to develop theoretical statements which
incorporate historical time.
In her seminal article "Cave! Hic Dragones", 10 Strange was concerned
that
regime
analysis,
by
concentrating
on
inter-governmental
organisations, has too easily taken on the agenda of the more powerful
states in the international system. By focusing on areas of international
agreement, this analysis leaves aside vast areas of the international
political economy that are not on the agenda of the major state actors. 11
Despite their protestations, studies of interdependence are most often
concerned with intergovernmental bodies while ignoring other
transnational actors of equal importance.12
2
And just as importantly, she notes, regime theory does not require
the scholar to ask whose power a regime's principles, norms, rules and
decision-making processes most reflect. Nor does it question the sources of
power within regimes. "By not requiring these basic structural questions
about power to be addressed, and by failing to insist that the values given
predominant emphasis in any international 'regime' should always be
explicitly identified", she stated. Analyses too often take for granted that
the values of the powerful states are the values of the whole system.13
Much of Strange's work has been a response to these criticisms of
International Relations and International Political Economy. But if the first
strand of her work has been an attempt to safeguard the new IPE from
these shortcomings, in the second she has sought to fill a particular lacuna
in the analysis of the international political economy.
Building on her early work and research which was concerned with
the history and politics of the international monetary system, Strange has
been concerned to explain the financial structure.14 This second strand has
seen Strange publish a number of full-scale works15 and articles16 on the
international politics of money and credit, which have informed her analysis
of the international political economy in general. While this work has fed
into the theory of structural power - finance is one of the four structures - it
represents a substantial body of work in itself. However, below we will limit
ourselves to the discussion of its part in her overall theory of power.
We should note that by moving from a sectoral specialisation to a
more overarching concern with structural power and transnational
relations, Strange provided a model for her views on the direction that
study should take. For Strange, analysis of international political economy
should always be rooted in the sectoral level, which should inform the more
general analysis.17 But before we turn to her analysis, we need to first
examine some of the epistemological issues raised by her work.
Epistemology and the Eclectic Method
To help us understand Strange's methodology, it is useful to explore
Feyerabend's "methodological anarchism".18 Feyerabend's argument for
epistemological openness is a position that sits well with Strange's more
intuitive justification of her eclectic theory-building. However, Strange
herself has not explicitly made this argument, having only "just about
heard of Feyerabend".19
Feyerabend has argued that theories of logical empiricism and critical
rationalism "give an inadequate account of science because science is
much more 'sloppy' and 'irrational' than its methodological image". 20 The
imposition of methodologies built around falsification, the avoidance of ad
hoc hypotheses or ideas, and the priority given to measurable phenomena,
constrict scientific advance. Science has always advanced through a
process of error and deviation.
Theory (and science) develop by comparing current ideas with
others, not by just comparing current theory with experience. As no theory
3
is consistent with all the facts within its domain, for Feyerabend, to discard
ideas that do not fit the facts is pointless. Rather those ideas that fail in
some way in the competition with others are improved until it is they that
win. Then the improvement process can move to the new loser. 21 It is this
proliferation of theories that impels science forward, while uniformity
(Kuhn's normal science) impairs any discipline's critical power.
The evidence that we can use to falsify one theory may only be
available through the application of another. Here Feyerabend reverses the
process that Kuhn describes: it is not the emergence of anomalies
(evidence that does not fit the current theory) that bring forward new
theories, but the new ideas which bring forward new evidence. For Kuhn,
anomaly only appears against the backdrop of the dominant theory, and
only when there are too many anomalies to sustain the theory will a new
one emerge.22 Kuhn's seems to be a linear process, whereas Feyerabend
sees a constant mediation between facts and theory.23
This is not to say that theories should eschew rationality. We can
justifiably demand that a theory should give us a coherent account of its
world - "of the totality of facts as constituted by its own basic concepts",
but that is all we can demand. 24 Thus while we may still be able to refute
specific theories, there can be no justification for competing theories to
criticise how other theories have constituted their facts. Most importantly, if
we accept the argument that the thing and the idea of the thing cannot be
separated, then there can be no objective existing thing, only a known
thing as even its recognition involves mobilising one theory or another.
Feyerabend is then able to argue that "every methodological rule is
associated with cosmological assumptions, so that using the rule we take it
for granted that the assumptions are correct".25 Methodologies are only
inherently superior after we have adopted a certain ideology, and we may
have done so without ever having examined its limits, as well as its
advantages. The acceptance or rejection of ideology is a matter for the
individual, bearing in mind its limitations and what needs to be done.
Feyerabend argues that as all "methodologies have their limitations...the
only rule that survives is 'anything goes'". 26 Thus he seeks not to replace
one set of rules with another but to point out that the appeal to any set of
rules as a justification may not be sufficient to establish that one theory is
necessarily more scientific than another. It is this very clash between facts
and theory that constitutes progress in science. Not every irrational theory
holds the promise of new approaches, but it is only by trying different
methods and theories that we can see what happens, and reap the
benefits; the revelation of new facts or new coherent theories.
By problematising a positivist, empirically based conception of
science, Feyerabend shows that science is not necessarily scientific itself.
We can now agree that any theory is open to approaches and facts that
might be initially dismissed by methodological conservatism. If so we are
able to argue, as Feyerabend does, that anything goes. And if this is the
case, we can diffuse the classic level of analysis problem 27 by following
Buzan, Jones and Little; different theories are merely different lenses, each
giving a partial view of the totality. 28 Thus arguments that try to replace
4
one theoretical construct with another may be less than helpful. Not only is
International Relations unlike science, the very model of science to which it
aspired is revealed by Feyerabend as chimerical.
Susan Strange has made this case herself, noting that the starting
point for her eclectic approach to IPE was to be "open to the concerns and
insights of a variety of disciplines and professions" rather than falling into
the continuing dialogue of the deaf between International Relations' three
paradigms.29 Indeed, she is prepared to argue that there is "no inherent
incompatibility between a Realist approach to international issues and the
structural method of analysis developed mainly by Marxists and
dependency theorists".30 As this involves a none-too-common claim for
International Relations, we need to be clear how Stranges methodology
might dovetail with the position outlined above.
Although Strange is explicitly concerned with producing an
explanatory theory, she remains sceptical as to the possibility of an allembracing, all-explaining theory of IPE. She argues we simply do not know
enough about the significant variables or the links between them to offer
definitive explanations. It may be that there can be no satisfactory metatheoretical analysis of the international political economy. Thus analytical
disaggregation, built on sectoral studies is required before theoretical
statements with a wider salience can be attempted.
Strange has also argued that social science cannot confidently
predict, as the irrational forces it deals with in human relations are too
numerous (and their permutations probably countless) to allow laws to be
formulated.31 Strange often noted that the one social science that has
aspired to predict is economics. But, as she sees its record of success as
abysmal, she argues it offers little in the way of a positive example to other
social scientists.
Thus for Strange, many of the difficulties regarding theory and the
social sciences stem ultimately from social scientists' inferiority complex
and, specifically, the inferiority complex of political economists towards the
apparent rigour of economic science.32 However, if we accept Feyerabend's
arguments, then despite its patina of scientific objectivity, economics is
only one theory among many. There is little need for a theory of IPE to
model itself on economics, or economic theories.
Theories, for Strange, should be scientific in the sense that they
respect scientific virtues of rationality and impartiality, and at least aspire
to be systematic in explanatory propositions. Her position is thus similar to
Feyerabend's. Though she recognises the problems for the social scientist
in gathering evidence, a scientific attitude should be preserved.33
From the above, we can suggest that Strange's eclectic approach can
be defended against a positivist critique by utilising Feyerabend's
arguments 'against method'. And while Strange herself would not defend
her work in such a manner, it is useful to locate her methodology within a
wider epistemological context, not least because it reveals summary
dismissal of her ideas on methodological grounds as ideologically
motivated.
While these decisions may have become facts, in the past they were (and
implicitly still are) subject to structural power.38
This bargaining process not only involves states, but other national
and international actors as well; bargains may be between non-state actors
themselves or between these actors and states. Authority over a particular
relationship where a bargain is struck is not dependent on an actor being a
state. The outcome of the bargain will, however, reflect where structural
power lies in that relationship.39
Ordering values
If we are to analyse bargains between authority and market, and the
influence of power on these bargains, we should also consider which values
are being prioritised. When Strange discusses values she is concerned with
the "basic values which human beings seek to provide through social
organisation, i.e. wealth, security, freedom and justice". For Strange, the
simple but important point is that different societies differ in the
proportions in which they combine these basic values.39
These arrangements or combinations are not divinely ordained,
necessarily settled or the outcome of chance or fortune. They are the end
result of decisions taken in the context of man-made institutions and selfset rules and customs - they are historically conditioned. 40 Strange's aim is
to make IPE value-sensitive; recognising where values are being ordered
and traded off, and the history of such decisions and bargains. It is also
necessary to understand how and when ordering of values informs
analyses.41
If power is defined primarily in terms of the ability to create or disrupt
order in the international system, as it is in Realism, then security is
promoted above the other four values. And since international order is
often, though not always, disrupted by states, it is unsurprising that
Realism's prime concern has been with the relations between states.
However if power is defined in terms of the ability to create or destroy
wealth rather than order, and to influence the elements of justice and
freedom, then the analysis will need to take into account, and may even
prioritise, other actors and relationships.42
Strange argues that there is a need in IPE for a greater openness
about values. At present, "economics tacitly prefers efficiency and
international relations tacitly prefers peace" making it difficult to discuss
what other values are sacrificed for the sake of efficiency or peace, and
what other changes are obstructed. 43 Where power is used to promote a
particular outcome over another, values themselves are being ordered.
There can be no neutral cost-benefit trade-off.44
Allocation of Risk
Strange's explicit discussion of the allocation of risk has been limited to one
published article, though it is implicit throughout her writings on power.
When considering The Politics of International Surplus Capacity, or
analysing Casino Capitalism, one of Stranges concerns has always been
how the risk of upheaval stemming from certain bargains has been
allocated. In the one article explicitly concerned with risk she fleetingly
proposed a fifth structure - the structure of welfare - consisting of the
"politically determined arrangements which decide how and for whom, the
main threats to human life and contentment are avoided, alleviated or
compensated."45 She maintains that political power in any system is used
both to avoid risk (or threats), or at least to shift the risk elsewhere, and to
extend the opportunities for those holding power. 46 Thus questions about
the perceptions of risk, and the mitigation, allocation and management of
risk, are an important part of any analysis. Risk is a concept which is
"essentially unifying when it comes to looking at political and economic
issues and outcomes". An analysis can usefully ask: What is the nature,
incidence and origin of the risk? Perhaps most importantly: How have
markets and states created risks, and how have they attempted to mitigate
them, or to convert them into costs?47
For Strange, risk is the obverse of opportunity. To discuss
opportunities is to discuss risks. Studies of international relations can be
divided by the sorts of risks and opportunities regarded as central. In
Realist analyses the risk of war is often cited, while liberalism is concerned
with opportunities for the creation and enjoyment of wealth. It is also
illuminating to ask how societies perceive and manage risk, as this will
reflect their ordering of values. Identifying risks helps reveal the balance
between authority and market. However, in her more developed version of
structural power the discussion of risk remains on the relational level particular political risks - rather than as part of the structural analysis. This
is not to say that the allocation of risk disappears from Strange's analysis,
merely that after this brief appearance it submerges again into an implicit
part of her schema.
Power in the social sciences
The concept of power needs to be understood in two ways; in an
instrumental sense (what does it do?) and in a procedural sense (how does
it do it?). As power is "the fundamental concept in social sciences",48 we
shall first briefly examine one way structural power has been developed in
social science, before looking at Strange's theory. While recognising that
this brief exploration must be partial and pull out certain aspects of the
discussion of structural power while remaining silent on others, it will be
useful to locate the idea of the possibility of structural power in a discourse
outside Stranges own. This is not to suggest that there is a necessary link
between the literature discussed below and Stranges own work, but it is to
suggest that Strange should not be seen as developing an idiosyncratic
approach with no precedents.
8
when methods of production change there will likely follow a shift in the
distribution of social and political power. In addition the nature of the state
and the use of authority over the market may be modified. "Change in the
production structure changes the very nature of the state. Its capabilities
are changed and so are its responsibilities."68
Strange agrees with the broad structural basis of a Marxian economic
analysis without accepting that it is the structure, it is but one of a
number.69
The struggle between classes influences change in the
structures of power, but does not determine such change, though at least
one writer has attempted to integrate Strange's structures back into a
Marxist-social relations approach.70
The analysis of the production structure has been taken furthest in
Rival States, Rival Firms, where it is suggested that states are now in
competition over the means to create wealth within their territory rather
than for domination over more territory. Where, in the past, states
competed for power as a means to wealth, now they compete more for
wealth as a means to power. National choices of industrial policy and
efficiency in economic management are beginning to override choices of
foreign or defence policy as the primary influences on how resources are
allocated.71
Changes in the production structure due to state policies and market
trends, transnational management strategies and changing technology
have altered the relative importance of the factors over which states have
most control, as opposed to those factors over which TNCs have most
control. States control access to territorial resources and the national labour
force. Firms control capital and technology, or at least now have
considerably better access to both. If we accept "that the relative
importance of labour and raw materials derived from land has fallen
dramatically in determining competitiveness, while that of capital and
technology has risen"72 we can see how changes in the international
production structure may have changed the roles of states and firms and
also how the allocation of benefits arising from production might have
shifted.
The Financial Structure
The third structure that Strange considers as a location of economic power
is the one about which she has written most. 73 She has argued that the
financial structure has risen in importance in the last thirty years and is
now decisively important in international economic relations. Strange has
emphasised that what is invested in modern economies is not money but
credit, and credit can be created - it does not have to be accumulated.
Therefore, whoever can gain the confidence of others in their ability to
create credit will control the economy.74 Political authority dictates what
money may be used, enforces if need be agreed monetary transactions,
and licenses and, if necessary, supports major credit-creating operators in
the system.75
12
Secondary Structures
For Strange, once the four structures above have been appreciated, then
other aspects of the international political economy can be considered as a
secondary level conditioned by the interaction of these primary
structures.88 Strange has identified the most important as: transport
systems; trade; energy; and welfare (where, unlike the welfare structure
14
she has proposed in an earlier work 89, this is more operational and less
concerned with the ordering of values).90
While these secondary structures bear a passing resemblance to the
issue areas in theories of interdependence, 91 for Strange this secondary
level can only be understood as a product of the four primary structures
and the power considerations therein.92 In these secondary structures
economic or political developments, and bargains over outcomes, are
conditioned by primary structural power. For any particular issue the
scholar needs to look beyond the superficial relational manifestations of
power to identify which actors are shaping the agenda of decision-making
and ruling out certain solutions or outcomes, without other actors
necessarily being aware of the way parameters are being set.
For Strange, part of the problem in International Relations and
International Political Economy has been the concentration on secondary
structures, not recognising the importance of the power relations within the
underlying primary structures. The implications of primary structural
change on this secondary level, and most importantly the growing
influence of the knowledge structure has informed much of Strange's
recent work.
Some Criticisms
Unlike some other theorists, Susan Strange has not attracted a wealth of
literature engaging with her assumptions, or offering critiques of her work.
This may be because as one of the originators of modern non-American
International Political Economy, other authors while not necessarily in awe
of Strange, are wary of trying to criticise what has been such a wideranging body of work. In addition until the appearance of States and
Markets, Stranges general theoretical position had always embedded
within sectoral subject matter (in her analysis of international finance in
Casino Capitalism or international trade in a number of articles for
International Affairs, for instance). It might also be possible that the
appearance of the word introduction in the sub-title to States and Markets
may sometimes lead to a premature dismissal of its theoretical content.
However, this is not to say that her work is beyond criticism, and indeed
there are three serious potential problems with her theory of structural
power. Perhaps of most immediate and widespread concern is her eclectic
method. As noted above, using Feyerabend's methodological anarchism
might not be the way Strange herself would defend her methodology, but
the parallels and resonances between the two are strong enough to give
such a position a certain salience.
These epistemological issues suggest a greater problem with
Strange's theory. While the inclusion of the fourth structure - knowledge - is
what makes the general theory so alluring, it also opens up a major
problem area inasmuch as it forces the theory to deal with issues that in its
current state of theoretical development it has difficulty understanding.
Strange attempts to use 'knowledge' and 'information' as interchangeable
15
terms, and by doing so suggest that the stuff of the knowledge structure is
somehow the same as money might be in the financial structure, a
resource that can be used.93 She defends this instrumentalist view of
knowledge-information by suggesting that what "the student of
international political economy is more immediately concerned with is the
nature of power exercised through a knowledge structure" rather than the
unresolved debates over the very nature of knowledge itself.94
However, this begs the most important question on which her
conception of the knowledge structure is based. How does knowledge
affect the other structures? For Strange, donning her instrumentalist guise,
it is the control of information and know-how, that enables structural power
to set the agendas in the other dimensions - security, finance and
production. But to carry this to its logical conclusion (as Ellehj does 95) is to
place the knowledge structure in a foundational role. If the control of
knowledge is the way agendas are set, and agenda-setting is a central role
of structural power, then knowledge issues must be prior. This is not the
direction in which Strange wishes to move. Her argument has always been
that the four structures interact, with none being necessarily prior in any
particular situation. The proposition that the knowledge structure could
condition all other structures would seem to go against the explicit theory
she has been building.
Having introduced knowledge in a structural form, Strange
immediately attempts to close the Pandora's box that she has opened. She
can only do this by requiring us to accept that knowledge is a resource.
While the discussion of belief systems teeters on the edge of opening up
issues of power and knowledge foregrounded by Foucault and others,
Strange constantly pulls back. Thus the knowledge structure in its current
state is one sided, and under-theorised. This is to say that while we can
accept that knowledge-information can be an instrumental influence on
action, there is another side to its influence. As Bourdieu has noted: "The
theory of knowledge is a dimension of political theory because the
specifically symbolic power to impose the principles of the construction of
reality - in particular, social reality - is a major dimension of political
power."96 Thus, even to claim that the knowledge issue is not problematic
is to make what Feyerabend might call an "ideological choice". If claims
about the nature of knowledge are political, then we need to account for
their interaction with the other structures Strange identifies, rather than
accept the use of knowledge-information as being a sufficient analysis of its
role.
Curiously, Strange sees the importance of knowledge (broadly
conceived) in the international political economy, yet closes her conception
of knowledge when suggesting its structural potential. If we are to use the
space opened up by the conception of a knowledge structure we need to
ensure that we include all those forms of knowledge that can be seen to
play a role in the authority/market bargains Strange sees as central to
understanding the international political economy. This must include more
than a notion of knowledge as information, not least of all because belief
always plays a role in the way choice, decisions and bargains are
16
18
Finally we should note that Strange herself clearly sees her work,
especially in States and Markets as suggestive rather than offering final
answers.113 This leads to the question of whether Strange really is offering
a fully developed theory at all. This question is important, not least of all
because it conditions our engagement with her work. If she is offering a
fully developed theory then our critique needs to be primarily concerned
with the problems within her analysis. But if she is offering a research
programme, then we can develop the theory in ways that engage with her
work (and our perception of its possible shortcomings), but also explicitly
reflects our own positions, particular interests and perspectives. As noted
above Strange accepts that on the question of change considerable
theoretical work is still needed if we are to understand the underlying
dynamics within the four structures. To limit our claims for Strange's work
and suggest that it does indeed represent something more approaching a
research programme than a theory is not to devalue its significance in any
sense. Rather it is to reinforce the need for theoretical work that remains
open to new insights.114
It is fairly easy to identify within Strange's work both the negative
and positive heuristics that Lakatos proposes for research programmes. 115
The negative heuristic would require us to avoid dealing only with
secondary structures, avoid examining only the national or the
international, and avoid dividing off the political from the economic. The
positive heuristic would encourage us to pursue considerations of structural
power, the ordering of values and the importance of non-state actors. This
is not to say that the fit between Strange's approach and a Lakatosian
research programme is perfect, but it may be a useful way of looking at
Stranges social scientific project.
Susan Strange's work may be 'Strange fruit' indeed, not to
everybody's taste, but as a recent festschrift116 has indicated she is not
without a substantial body of admirers. What is interesting is that most of
the contributors point to Strange as a mentor and remark on her
encouragement of their own work, rather than offering reheated versions of
her work. Perhaps the most powerful and influential aspect of Strange's
work will be to have produced in her wake a group of followers, not
repeating and refining her every thought, but a group of International
Political Economy scholars prepared to engage with values and structural
power considerations, who do not accept agendas as given and who
recognise the usefulness of sectoral expertise.
NOTES:
The author would like to thank Susan Strange, Stephen Chan, Hazel Smith,
Norman Lewis, Roger Tooze, Chris Farrands and an anonymous referee for
comments on various versions of this article, and the issues its raises. As is
customary to point out however, any shortcomings remain the authors
own.
20
1.
R.W. Cox, "Social Forces, States and World Orders: Beyond
International Relations Theory", in R.O. Keohane (ed.), Neorealism and Its
Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986) p207.
2.
For instance see P. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers:
Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 (London: Unwin
Hyman, 1988) and R.O. Keohane, After Hegemony: Co-operation and
Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 1984).
3.
S. Strange, "Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire E.O. Czempiel
and J.N. Rosenau (eds.), Global Changes and Theoretical Challenges:
Approaches to World Politics for the 1990s (Lexington: Lexington Books,
1989) p.161. The definition of theory Strange uses here and elsewhere is
one drawn from the Oxford English Dictionary.
4.
S. Strange, States and Markets (London: Pinter Publishers 1988), p.10
and Strange, "Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire", op.cit., p162.
5.
B. Buzan, "States and Markets" (Book review) International Affairs
Vol.65, 1989, p.331.
6.
Strange, States and Markets, op.cit., p.11 and similarly Strange,
"Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire", op.cit., p.163.
7.
8.
This point is usefully elaborated in J.L. Richards, "States and Markets"
(Book Review) The Economic Record Vol.65, No.191, p.403.
9.
S. Strange and R. Tooze (eds.), The Politics of International Surplus
Capacity (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981) p.17.
10. S. Strange, "Cave! Hic Dragones: A Critique of Regime Analysis",
International Organisation Vol.36, No.2, Spring 1982. See also Strange and
Tooze, Politics of International Surplus Capacity, op.cit. p.9; S. Strange (ed.),
Paths to International Political Economy (London: Allen and Unwin, 1984)
p.117; S. Strange Casino Capitalism (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1986)
pp.170-1 and Strange, States and Markets, op.cit., pp.21-2.
11.
21
19.
20.
21.
22
24.
Ibid., pp.284-5.
25.
Ibid., p.295.
26.
Ibid., p.296.
32.
33.
Ibid., p.22.
23
39. Strange,
"Protectionism
and
World
Politics",
International
Organisation, Vol.39, No.2 (Spring 1985) p.237; Strange, States and
Markets, op.cit., p.17.
40.
41. Strange, "Structures, Values and Risk in the Study of the International
Political Economy", in R.J.B. Jones (ed.), Perspectives on Political Economy
(London: Francis Pinter Publishers, 1983) pp.210-1.
42. Strange, "Big Business and the State", Millennium: Journal of
International Studies Vol.20, No.2 (Summer 1991) p.245.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48. B. Russell, Power. A New Social Analysis (London: George Allen and
Unwin, 1938) p.10.
49.
Ibid. p35.
50.
Ibid. p12.
51. P.M. Blau, Exchange and Power in Social Life (New York: John Wiley
and Sons Inc, 1964) p.117, where he draws extensively on Talcott Parsons.
52. For Blau 'benefits' are what the lesser actor needs from the dominant
actor who is exercising power. For instance, B may do A's bidding because if
B does, A will continue to protect B from the influence of C. The benefit
enjoyed is that of protection.
53.
Ibid. p.140.
Ibid. p.20.
56.
Ibid. p.24.
57.
58.
61.
Strange, "Structures, Values and Risk...", op.cit., p.216 and Strange,
States and Markets, op.cit., p.26.
62.
68.
Ibid., p.87.
Ibid., pp.215-5.
73. Her early research work at Chatham House (where she was Research
Director) and later work both on the Ford Foundation's Transnational
Relations project and at the LSE, focused on international monetary
25
78. Strange, Casino Capitalism, op.cit., p.99; and Strange, "An Eclectic
Approach", op.cit., p.35.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
86.
87.
For one direction such development might take see P. Ellehj, "Deux ex machina:
The Process of International Economic Co-operation", R. Morgan, J. Lorentzen, A. Leander
and S. Guzzini (eds.), New Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World: Essays for Susan
Strange (Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1993), where the "knowledge structure"
becomes the foundation for the other three.
88.
89.
90.
91.
See for instance Keohane and Nye, Power and Interdependence, op.cit. or R.W.
Mansbach and J.A. Vasquez, In Search of Theory: A New Paradigm for Global Politics
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1981).
92.
Strange, "The Study of Transnational Relations", op.cit., p.346 ff; Strange,
"Protectionism and World Politics", op.cit., p.234; S. Strange, "Defending Benign
Mercantilism" (Review Essay) Journal of Peace Research, Vol.25, No.3 (Autumn 1988),
p.276; and Strange, States and Markets, op.cit., p.135.
93.
94.
Ibid., p132, though in all fairness she does provide in a footnote a useful starting
bibliography for an investigation of these issues including works by Barthes, Foucault,
Habermas and others.
95.
Ellehj, op.cit., an article that take the first steps towards re-theorising the
knowledge structure.
96.
P. Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1977) p.165.
97.
M. Foucault, The History of Sexuality. An Introduction (London: Penguin Books,
1990) p.85 ff.
98.
Strange, States and Markets, op.cit., p.200; S. Strange, "The Name of the Game",
N.X. Rizopoulos (ed.), Sea Changes: American Foreign Policy in a World Transformed
(New York: Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1990), p245ff; Strange, Stopford and
Henley, Rival States Rival Firms, op.cit., pp.22, 34; and Strange, "An Eclectic Approach",
op.cit., p.38.
99.
K.J. Holsti, The Dividing Discipline: Hegemony and Diversity in International
Theory (Winchester,Mass.: Allen and Unwin, 1985) pp.46-7 makes a similar criticism of
"global society" theories.
100. Strange, Casino Capitalism, op.cit., pp.97-8, 146; and Strange, Stopford and
Henley, Rival States Rival Firms, op.cit., p.227 ff.
101. Strange, personal correspondence with author in response to a note raising this
issue but also see Strange, "Territory, State, Authority and Economy: A New Realist
Ontology of Global Political Economy" (Unpublished article for Robert Cox's
Multilateralism Project at the United Nations University) (Written during 1993), p.22 ff.
102. For Coxs brief notes on such a project see his "States and Markets" (Book
review) Millennium op.cit.. For his understanding of change see Social Forces, States
and World Orders op.cit. and Production, Power, and World Order op.cit..
103. Strange, "Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire", op.cit., pp.169-70; and
Strange, "Territory, State, Authority and Economy...", op.cit., p.3.
104. Strange, "Territory, State, Authority and Economy", op. cit, p.27; and J.N. Rosenau
Turbulence in World Politics: A Theory of Change and Continuity (Hemel Hempstead:
Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990).
27
105. Strange, "The Future of the American Empire", Journal of International Affairs,
Vol.42, No.1, (Fall 1988) p.5. For an earlier appreciation of America's position in this
regard see R. Vernon, "Rogue Elephant in the Forest: An Appraisal of Transatlantic
Relations", Foreign Affairs, Vol.51, No.3 (April 1973) pp.573-87.
106. Strange, "Big Business and the State", op.cit., pp.245-6 and Strange, "The
Transformation of the World Economy", in L. Babic and B. Huldt (eds.) Mapping the
Unknown: Towards a New World Order. Yearbook of the Swedish Institute for
International Affairs 1992-1993 (London: Hurst and Co. [for the SIIA], 1993) pp.45-6.
107.
Strange, Stopford and Henley, Rival States Rival Firms, op.cit., p.32.
108. Strange, "The Name of the Game", op.cit., p.260 ff. For an interesting parallel
analysis see S. Gill, "Economic Globalisation and the Internalisation of Authority: Limits
and Contradictions", in Geoforum (Special Issue: Regulating the Global Economy and
Environment) Vol.23, No.3 (August 1992) pp.269-83, or Gill, American Hegemony and
the Trilateral Commission (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
109. Strange, "Territory, State, Authority and Economy...", op.cit., pp.15-6; and
Strange, "Wake up, Krasner! The world has changed", Review of International Political
Economy, Vol.1, No.2 (Summer 1994) pp.215-6. For Gramscian approaches see for
instance S. Gill (ed.) Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
110. Strange, "Towards a Theory of Transnational Empire", op.cit., p.167; and Strange,
"Territory, State, Authority and Economy...", op.cit., p.14.
111.
112. Strange, "The Future of the American Empire", op.cit.; and Strange, "Towards a
Theory of Transnational Empire", op.cit. See the analysis of the power of American
international credit rating agencies which builds on an appreciation of Strange's
knowledge structure see T.J. Sinclair, "Passing Judgement: Credit Rating Processes as
Regulatory Mechanisms of Governance in the Emerging World Order", Review of
International Political Economy, Vol.1, No.1 (Spring 1994) pp.133-159.
113.
116.
28