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This book is a major new evaluation of the contribution of the influential English School to international relations theory. It focuses on all the key contemporary and international political issues, and contains a mixture of theoretical and empirical issues, presented by leading scholars in the field. In recent years, the English School of International Relations – or international society – approach to international relations has become prominent because its theories and concepts seem to be able to help explain some of the most complex and seemingly paradoxical features of contemporary world politics. In doing this, the approach has attracted a variety of criticisms from both ends of the political spectrum, with some arguing that the claim that states form an international society is premature in an era of terror where power politics and the use of force have returned to the fore, and others insisting that the state‐centrism of international society makes it an inherently conservative approach that is unable to address many of the world's most pressing problems. The book provides the first in‐depth study of the English School approach to international relations from a variety of different theoretical and practical perspectives. Sixteen scholars from three continents critically evaluate the contribution of the School to the study of international theory and world history, consider its relationship with a variety of alternative perspectives, including international political economy, feminism, environmentalism, and critical security studies, and assess how the approach can help to make sense of the big issues of the day such as terrorism, the management of cultural difference, global governance, the ethics of coercion, and the role of international law. The contributors find that whilst the concept of international society helps to shed light on many of the important tensions in world politics, much work still needs to be done. In particular, the approach needs to broaden its empirical scope to incorporate more of the issues and actors that shape global politics, draw upon other theoretical traditions to improve its explanations of change in world politics, and recognize the complex and multi‐layered nature of the contemporary world. After an introduction by the editor, the book is arranged in three parts: One, The English School's Contribution to International Relations (four chapters); Two, Critical Engagements with International Society (six chapters); and Three, International Society After September 11 (five chapters). There is also a Conclusion by the editor.

This book examines the decision to adopt European Monetary Union (EMU) as a federal bargain by the European Union, designed to provide the countries of Europe with a bulwark against the volatility of the international economy. Although the precise motives of the participants varied from country to country, all were agreed that only federal-like political and economic arrangements would provide a guarantee of economic and political stability. The book provides a coherent theoretical framework for understanding the decisions taken at Maastricht and later. By making comparisons with other federations, the book also examines the political and economic conditions under which federations succeed or fail. It concludes that EMU will only be politically sustainable if novel ways are found to limit centrally imposed fiscal and spending policies.

In the 1990s, the fight between North and South over intellectual property (IP) reached new heights. The result was the World Trade Organization's (WTO's) deeply contested agreement on Trade‐Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). Widely resented by developing countries, TRIPS nonetheless permits them some hard‐won flexibility. Puzzling, however, is why some developing countries have used that flexibility and others have not. Even more curious is that despite securing some extra concessions, many of the poorest countries have made least use of them. For scholars of international political economy and law, this book is the first detailed exploration of the links between global IP politics and the implementation of IP reforms. It exposes how power politics occur not just within global trade talks but afterwards when countries implement agreements. For developing countries, TRIPS did not end the IP offensive. At the urging of lobbyists from large multinational companies, powerful countries backtracked on the flexibilities in TRIPS and pursued even stronger global IP rules. To prevent precedents for weaker IP standards in poorer countries, they issued threats to market access, aid, investment, and political alliances. Further, they used new trade deals and, more subtly, ‘capacity‐building’ (assisted by the World Intellectual Property Organization, among others) to leverage faster compliance and higher standards than TRIPS requires. Meanwhile, ‘pro‐development’ advocates from civil society, other UN agencies, and developing countries worked to counter ‘compliance‐plus’ pressures and defend the use of TRIPS flexibilities, sometimes with success. Within developing countries, most governments had little experience of IP law. They often deferred TRIPS implementation to IP offices cut‐off from trade politics and national policymaking, making them more vulnerable to the TRIPS‐plus agenda. In francophone Africa, regional IP arrangements magnified this effect.

Modern Asian economic history has often been written in terms of Western impact and Asia's response to it. This book argues that the growth of intra-regional trade, migration, and capital and money flows was a crucial factor that determined the course of East Asian economic development. The chapters are organized around three main themes. First, economic interactions between Japan and China were important in shaping the pattern of regional industrialization. Neither country imported technology and organizations, and attempted to ‘catch up’ with the West alone. Japan's industrialization took place, taking advantage of the Chinese merchant networks in Asia, while the Chinese competition was a critical factor in the Japanese technological and organizational ‘upgrading’ in the interwar period. Second, the pattern of China's integration into the international economy was shaped by the growth of intra-Asian trade, migration, and capital flows and remittances. While the Western impact was mostly confined to the littoral region of China, intra-Asian trade was more directly connected with China's internal market. Both the fall of the imperial monetary system and the rise of economic nationalism in the early 20th century reflected increasing contacts with the Asian international economy. Third, in spite of the adverse political environment, East Asian merchant and migration networks exploited economic opportunities, taking advantage of colonial institutional arrangements and even political conflicts. They made a contribution to national and regional economic development in the politically more favourable environment after the Second World War by providing the valuable expertise and entrepreneurship they had accumulated before the war. The character of the international order of Asia, governed by Western powers, especially Britain, but shared also by Japan for most of the period, was ‘imperialism of free trade’, although it eventually collapsed by the late 1930s.

Mad money is a classic of international relations and international political economy literature. It has profound modern relevance. First published by Manchester University Press in 1998, the book called for an end to the volatility of international financial markets. Markets had grown, technology had advanced, regulation had all but disappeared. Finance was calling the tune internationally – governments had been stripped of control, morals had loosened, income gaps were widening sharply. Susan Strange predicted that this would lead to a long, inevitable financial crisis if it continued unchecked. She was proved right within a few years of the book coming out.This reissue includes a new introduction by Benjamin J. Cohen of the University of California that contextualises the book and conveys the value of the work to a modern audience.

Following the Rio Agreement in 1967, the birth of the Special Drawing Right (SDR) was widely heralded as the first step towards a world international money. The SDR's intended purpose, though, was more modest: to help salvage the prevailing international monetary system which had evolved since Bretton Woods. This volume examines the relatively recent and important history of SDRs—what they are, where they came from, and why they are significant. This book considers the changing roles and influences of the US and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as post‐Bretton Woods monetary arrangements established themselves. Despite their retreat from early acclaim, work continued, particularly at the Fund, on enhancing the potential of SDRs to contribute to international monetary stability, and SDRs have recently re‐emerged as a potential source of support and stability for the international monetary system underpinning the world economy. The SDR, and the debate surrounding it, is an excellent prism through which to examine other important themes in contemporary international political economy, including international liquidity provision and international monetary reform. Ultimately, the policies of the US, the IMF, and the changing nature of the relationship between them emerge as fundamental themes for an understanding of prospects for SDRs under post‐Bretton Woods international monetary arrangements. Today, the promise and disappointment that has characterized the short history of SDRs is more important than ever as the world again examines these arrangements in the wake of the international financial crisis.

Grounded in literature from the sociology of finance and international political economy, and informed by extensive empirical research, this book explores the unprecedented relationships that now bind Anglo-American society with the financial markets. As mutual funds have increased in popularity and pension provision has been transformed, many more individuals and households have come to invest in stocks and shares. As consumer borrowing has risen dramatically and mortgage finance has embraced those deemed sub-prime, so the repayments of credit card holders and mortgagors have provided the basis for the issue and trading of bonds and other market instruments. This book shows how financial market networks have come to extend well beyond Wall Street and the City of London, becoming embedded and embodied in routine saving and borrowing in the US and UK. Society's new-found relationships with the markets are also shown, however, to be marked by stark inequalities, manifest contradictions, and political dissent.

Ranald Michie traces the history of the London Stock Exchange from its beginnings around 1700 to the end of the twentieth century, chronicling the challenges and opportunities it has faced, avoided, or exploited over the years. Throughout, the history seeks to blend an understanding of the London Stock Exchange as an institution with that of the securities market of which it was––and is––such an important component; one cannot be examined satisfactorily without the other. Without a knowledge of both, for example, the causes of the ’Big Bang’ of 1986 would forever remain a mystery. However, the history of the London Stock Exchange is not just worthy of study for what it reveals about the interaction between institution and market. Such was its importance that its rise to world dominance before 1914, its decline thereafter, and its renaissance from the mid‐1980s explain a great deal about Britain's own economic performance and the working of the international economy.