In the Face of the Global Crises

In the face of the Global Crises

For decades, the study of the international political economy has enabled us to better understand issues that had been haunting the international community such as the global security crisis and the global financial crisis. Now that it is facing such adversaries again, it makes us quite curious whether or not the measures that our predecessors did before to prevent such things again from happening are indeed   effective. It is good to ask whether or not the study of the international political economy needs to be furnished more.
The global financial crisis that began in 2007 is a once-in-a-lifetime event with wideranging
consequences for government policymaking. The crisis has prompted much soulsearching
among economists and financial experts who failed to anticipate it, or whose warnings
were not taken seriously by regulators and investors. Scholars of international political economy
(IPE), however, are generally not in the business of predicting financial crises or recessions, and
so the field is unlikely to see the crisis as a manifestation of scholarly failure. Yet the crisis may
have an appreciable impact on the trajectory of IPE, just as the downfall of the Soviet Union
shaped subsequent scholarship on international relations and great-power conflict and prompted a
movement away from grand, and toward mid-range, theories.Financial regulation is certain to receive increased scrutiny; indeed, concepts such as capital adequacy and mark-to-market accounting—previously considered arcane—have already received substantial coverage in the press. Political scientists should have more to say about the political determinants and economic consequences of these regulations, especially as they relate to global financial stability. The financial crisis also highlights, and perhaps promotes, shifting patterns of global governance, including the greater inclusion of developing countries in international standard-setting bodies and...